Imagine the horror of finding your loved one had passed away at a place he or she was not supposed to be.
This was the case with Christine Nxumalo, a family member of a former Life Esidimeni patient who was one of 36 who died shortly after being transferred from the facility.
Nxumalo was told that her beloved 55-year-old sister, Virginia Machpelah had passed away – 10 days after her passing. She received the news from Precious Angels, a non-government organisation (NGO) that looks after psychiatric patients.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) raised questions about the NGO after they alleged that a number of patients had died while in their care.
“Precious Angels was registered as an NGO only in June this year shortly before receiving patients from Life Healthcare Esidimeni,” said Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng shadow MEC for Health.
Nxumalo is perplexed by her sister’s death, not only because it was so unexpected and soon after her being transferred from Esidimeni, but also because she was not aware of her sister being at the NGO as Nxumalo was led to believe she was at the Cullinan Care Hospital.
She said she found her sister’s body at a private undertaker. According to Nxumalo, her sister suffered from Alzheimer’s but was in a good condition when she left Esidimeni. She requested an investigation into her sister’s death.
Nxumalo said she was told that six other bodies of patients from the NGO were at the undertaker. She requested that postmortems be performed on all the bodies of Precious Angels patients.
Since the deaths were made public, Bloom has called for Qedani Mahlangu, Gauteng MEC for Health to either step down or to be fired.
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