Gran dies while nurses have tea

[Hail Columbia]

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2220495,00.html
http://www.africancrisis.co.za/Article.php?ID=19728&

Annelene Moses, Beeld

Johannesburg - Singer Vicki du Preez, who claimed she was thrown to the floor by security guards at Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg while her frail mother was being treated there, returned at the weekend to find her mother had died while nurses were drinking tea elsewhere.

Du Preez, of Roodepoort, said she was shocked to find during a visit at 15:40 on Saturday that her mother Kotie Grebe, 88, was dead.

She said her mother's head was lying to one side, there was blood coming from her mouth and her pyjamas were soaked in blood.

Du Preez said the nursing station in her mother's ward was deserted.

"I went down the passage to look for nurses and found them all sitting in a room where they were enjoying a cup of tea."

'No one to hold her hand'

She told them her mother had died, and "they jumped up to go and check if she really had died".

The nurses told Du Preez that her mother's blood pressure had been recorded at about 14:00, as reflected in her hospital record.

They also claimed that they had taken her temperature an hour later, and found it to be a bit high.

Preez said she had examined the record herself, and there was no second reading on it.

The doctor who signed the death certificate apparently told Du Preez that he could see on Friday that her mother was dying.

Du Preez said: "My mother died alone, there was no one there to hold her hand.

"I had phoned that morning and was told she had slept well and had had breakfast.

"I would have been with my mother if I'd realised how bad it really was."

She saw that one of the security guards who allegedly had thrown her to the floor last week was still at his post on Saturday.

"I sent an e-mail to the executive head of the Health Department concerning the assault on me and about my mother's death.

"I was told an inquiry would be launched. Why had the guards not been suspended pending the inquiry?" she asked.

Beeld newspaper reported last Friday that Du Preez had been stopped by two security guards while on her way back to the casualty ward to help her mom.

Has filed assault charge

They ignored her explanation that her mother was too ill to speak to the doctor and that she wanted to speak to the doctor.

When she tried to push them aside, they allegedly grabbed her by the shoulders, spun her around and pinned her to the floor.

She filed a charge of assault at Brixton police station.

Zanele Mngadi of Gauteng Health Department said they were investigating the allegations and if staff had been negligent, action would be taken.