Family wants answers after man dies in Matlala psychiatric ward
A family is demanding answers from Matlala Hospital in Tsimanyane village outside Marble Hall following the death of a man admitted about two weeks ago.
LIMPOPO – According to the family, they received a call from the hospital about the death of their family member, in his 40s, in the early hours of last Wednesday morning.
The family from Mamphokgo village complained that the hospital gave them conflicting versions of how Mashego Mananyetso died.
Marang Mananyetso, a family member, said the hospital called the deceased’s mother following the death and told her that one of the patients in the psychiatric wards Mashego was in, pushed him and that he fell and died.
Manayetso said when the family went to the hospital to investigate further, they were told that one of the psychiatric patients in actual fact became aggressive.
“One of the health workers told us that they became aware of the incident when the aggressive patient was already trampling on Mashego who laid on the floor,” said Mananyetso.
Mashego said it was questionable where the health workers were when the other patient started getting out of hand.
“This to us show that the patients were not properly monitored when the incident occurred because the health workers would have known how to act to quell the situation,” worried Mananyetso.
He said as a family they were hurt because they took Mashego to the hospital with the hope that he would be cared for and return home better.
Mananyetso added that the family awaited an official report from the hospital detailing what exactly transpired during the death of their member.
He said on Tuesday, they were informed that the hospital awaited authorisation of the report by its head of department.
Col Moatshe Ngoepe, Provincial Police Spokesperson, said it was alleged that last Wednesday at about 02:00 at Matlala Hospital in the psychiatric ward, a 32-year-old man assaulted another patient in the same ward by the name of Mashego Mananyetso, aged 47.
Ngoepe said the police were notified and the suspect was arrested shortly thereafter. He has since appeared in the Sekhukhune Magistrate’s Court.
His case was postponed to this week.
In a statement released following the incident, the Department of Health said it was saddened by the incident in which two mental health care patients were involved in a fight which resulted in one of them losing his life at Matlala Hospital.
The department said the MEC, Dr Phophi Ramathuba had sent a team of senior executives to investigate the circumstances that led to the regrettable incident and also to establish if there were no clinical protocol breaches.
According to the department the MEC has also conveyed her condolences to the family of the deceased. An update of the story will be published as soon as it is available.
