A 66-year-old diabetic woman with multiple fractures spent seven hours waiting for care at Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg, while security guards threatened to use force to stop her relatives from caring for her.
Despite her fractured foot and injured back and ribs, Anna Myers was asked to stand so that her chair could be used by other patients.
Her son Xander Myers took his mother to Helen Joseph at 8am on a Thursday earlier this month after she fell down stairs.
”The hospital was full — there were people lying everywhere,” he said. ”It was horrible. My mother was immediately taken to casualty and had a drip put in her. I was asked to leave: the two security guards outside the door of casualty told me to wait outside. I was not allowed to sit with her.
”I was worried about my mom. She is 66 years old, she was in shock, her blood pressure was high, she is diabetic and she hadn’t eaten anything. I asked the guards if I could please just get her some water before I left. They refused and demanded I leave or they would use force.”
For two hours Xander Myers waited in the hallway without any news of his mother. His sister Stefane Potas arrived and begged the guards to let her see her mother.
”The guards told me I was no one special and would not allow me to go in,” she said. ”I was furious. The smell in the hospital was unbearable — I had to put my hand over my nose. There were people lying on the floor of the hospital. They looked so weak and seriously ill.
”As the day went on it became even more packed. People had to wait outside. Those who were too sick lay on the grass holding their files, waiting to be called in.”
Three hours after Anna had entered the casualty ward, a nurse asked Xander to help his mother walk to the X-ray department because there were no wheelchairs available.
”My mom couldn’t walk: she had broken her foot and hurt her ribs and her back in the fall. I helped her to the X-ray department, where I was told to leave her and come straight out,” said Xander. ”No one would tell me how she would get back to casualty.”
After two more hours of waiting, Potas again pleaded with the guards to let her in to give her mother some juice because, despite being a diabetic, Anna had neither eaten nor drunk anything for six hours.
The guards let her in briefly and she found her mother sitting on the bench with her drip closed.
”She said they had not looked at her X-rays yet and no one was giving her any information,” said Potas. ”She told me that the lady lying next to her on a trolley had had her handbag stolen from next to her as they waited in casualty.” The security guards interrupted the conversation and told Potas to leave immediately.
Shortly afterwards her brother was allowed in. He found Anna weak, hungry and thirsty — and standing on her broken foot. She explained she had been asked to stand to make space for other people to sit.
”I was furious. My mother was in shock and in so much pain she couldn’t argue,” he said. ”She was just quiet and agreed to everything. What else could she do?”
Angry and concerned about her mother’s condition, Potas asked to speak to the superintendent of the hospital – who was unavailable. She was told that the matron in charge of casualty had been informed about her mother and would make sure she was attended to. Nothing happened.
The guards then ordered Potas and her brother to stop waiting outside casualty and to go outside the hospital building. At 3pm, after another hour of waiting, Potas walked back to the guards and demanded to see her mother.
”I found my mother covered in blood. A nurse was trying to open her drip but it came out [of her arm],” she said. ”There was blood everywhere. The nurse was trembling. She didn’t know what to do: she couldn’t take it out, she couldn’t put it in properly, she asked my mother to hold her own drip into the vein so she could go get plasters.”
Twenty minutes later Anna Myers was told she needed to be admitted to hospital because her sugar levels were very high. Unfortunately there were no beds available, so instead she was told to go and get medication. Her children were not allowed to help her to the pharmacy, which was on the floor above.
Ignoring the prohibition, Xander Myers took his mother’s file and ran up the stairs to see if the pharmacy was still open. It was — but it didn’t have the drugs.
Seven hours after going to the hospital Anna Myers was sent home without receiving help for her broken foot and without the medication she needed for her diabetes.
By the time of going to press, neither the superintendent nor the press officer at Helen Joseph Hospital had responded to the Mail & Guardian‘s requests for comment.
Nor did the superintendent ever contact Potas as promised.