GRAPHIC IMAGES: Patient screams hospital neglect

A Zandspruit resident has been living for the past three years in agonising pain, stemming from his left leg despite going to Helen Joseph Hospital for treatment.

Gift Meth (30 years) said that three years ago he started feeling a strange sensation in his leg where the skin felt soft like a marshmallow. A tumour soon began to grow from underneath his skin.

“When the pain in my leg started I went to the clinic in Honeydew where they referred me to Helen Joseph Hospital. At the hospital, they took a sample of the tumour and sent it to the lab for testing. I went back to the hospital and was told that I have blood cancer and given a date to return,” Meth said.

He said that since then he has been sent from pillar to post trying to gain access to health care and in the meantime the tumour on his leg has grown and so has the pain.

“I can’t really look after myself – I am in constant pain. When it gets cold the pain gets worse. I am unable to work because of the tumour and have no means of buying food or paraffin. When I go to the hospital all I am given is pain medication, which does not help me at all,” Meth lamented.

The tumour on his leg is the size of a child’s brain and prohibits him from walking long distances. Meth’s neighbors look after him and feed him where they can. “My neighbors sometimes give me money for taxi fare to get to the hospital so that I can fetch the pain medication. I have to go every week,” he explained. “When I get to the hospital the nurses just look at my leg and prescribe the pain medicine. I feel too embarrassed to sit with people in case they see the tumour on my leg. I feel so helpless. I just wish I could get the help I need so that I can get better and get a job because I have a brother and sister who live in an orphanage. I need to take care of them but now I just can’t,” Meth added.

Spokesperson for the Gauteng Department of Health Steve Mabona said that the Gauteng Department of Health regretted what has happened to the patient but undertook to work with him to assist in his healing procedure accordingly.

Mabona however, explained that Meth had been seen in the polyclinic, and then referred him to the surgical emergency department, where he was seen by a doctor. “While waiting for an opinion by the surgical registrar, the patient decided to sign a refusal of hospital treatment (RHT), however, he was advised to attend the surgery outpatients clinic. Unfortunately, he did not attend the specialist clinic. He then subsequently, visited the hospital through the polyclinic. He, was on numerous occasions advised to attend the surgical specialist outpatient department (SOPD),which sadly he did not,” Mabona further explained.

Mabona added that in order to resolve this matter, they had already started interacting with the patient, for his return to the hospital where they would conduct the necessary clinical assessments, citing that it was imperative for clinicians to establish the extent of his condition in order to plan for necessary procedure to be conducted to rectify his condition and rehabilitation.

“We regret that things happened in this fashion, and undertake to work with him, and plead for his cooperation going forward,”Mabona said.

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Details: Helen Joseph Hospital, 011 489 1011.