My mother recently fell ill and, because she doesn’t have medical aid, my sister and I called an ambulance to take her to the Boksburg-Benoni hospital. She was in tremendous pain, vomiting continuously and having difficulty breathing. We were told an ambulance wasn’t available so we drove her there ourselves.
She spent a week in hospital where she was constantly given new medication, even though she was complaining about severe pain in her stomach. She was then sent to see a lung specialist at Johannesburg General hospital who said she needed to be put on oxygen for a number of hours every day. Luckily we have a car as, again, no ambulance was available. We took her home and administered the oxygen to her.
On the Saturday, my sister called me to say my mother was not well and that she feared she was dying. We phoned the Boksburg-Benoni hospital but, when the ambulance arrived at about 6pm, they said no bed was available at the hospital and they took her to the Far East Rand Hospital in Springs. There a doctor did a very brief examination of her and said she had an ulcer. She was then put on a trolley and left in the passage. After repeatedly asking for pain medication she was eventually given a drip. Next to her a patient who had been referred with a burst appendix was sent to the back of the queue.
My mother lay in the passage all night and was offered neither food nor water. When I asked the nurse if she could bring her some water, she dismissed me with the words, ”You should treat me with respect.”
When I requested a bedpan, the nurse pointed out where they were. It didn’t look clean so I went into the toilet and cleaned it as best as I could. None of the toilets had seats and they were in a shocking state. When my mother vomited I used the bedpan because there was nothing else. When I asked how long she would have to lie there, I was told it might be a few days until beds would become available. Some people had already been waiting there for days.
My mother is diabetic and her blood pressure and blood sugar were never even checked. During the night, no one checked the drip or took her blood pressure or did monitoring of any kind. We went home and brought back blankets and some soup as she had not had anything to eat. By Sunday afternoon my mother was still in casualty, waiting to see a surgeon, who I was told might not be available until the Wednesday.
By 6.30pm on Sunday evening I was getting desperate. I phoned the Heidelberg Hospital who said that they had a bed. We put her in the car and took her there. After waiting for a couple of hours, they said that they did not, in fact, have a bed available. At 11pm we were told to take her home and give her medication and oxygen.
On Monday morning at 6.30am we went back to Far East Rand Hospital, where we had to join an already long queue of people on stretchers. We were back to square one and by this stage my mom was exhausted, distressed and in agonising pain. In desperation, I phoned the Sunshine Private Hospital in Benoni to see how much it would cost to have her admitted.
I spoke directly to the managing director of the hospital, Ken Ford. After hearing my story, he phoned around to see if he could find a bed for her in a public hospital.
When I returned my mom was no longer in casualty. A nurse had sent her to sit in the waiting area and told her to leave her number; they would phone her when a bed was available.
Ford couldn’t find anywhere that could admit her, so he immediately got into his car and fetched my mom from the casualty and took her back to Sunshine Hospital. He told me that as there were no other options he would admit and treat her for free.
She was admitted at lunchtime and, the next day, a surgeon performed an emergency gall bladder operation. The doctor told me that her gall bladder had poisoned her entire body because it had not been treated in time, which made her condition much worse. She spent six days in intensive care and was then put in a general ward. The medical bills are currently standing at about R80 000, but Ford has told us the hospital will bear all the medical costs.
I am not only grateful but shocked, because the perception is that private hospitals are only interested in profits. If we had relied on the public health service, my mother would be dead. Service? What service?
Attie van der Westhuizen is an apprentice fitter from Brakpan.