Hospital identity error traumatises family.
IN A case of mistaken identity at Frere Hospital, a patient was declared dead and later found alive in another ward.
The family of the patient, Phumla Mangesi, 50, was called early on Tuesday morning by a sister at the hospital notifying them of the death of their loved one.
Hutton Stamper, who is married to Mangesi’s younger sister, Nombulelo, said his wife could not talk about the trauma.
Stamper said Mangesi had been at the hospital for a month after suffering a stroke and had been admitted to ward D3.
On Monday, they had visited Mangesi and she was fine; they were told she was going to be discharged.
“Around 7am, my wife got a call from one of the ward sisters saying Phumla had passed away. So we came to the hospital, with other family members,” he said.
When they got to D3, they were told that Mangesi had been moved to D2 the night before. At D2 they were given a plastic bag with her clothes marked with her name.
“We were then told to go to the mortuary to fill in a form which explained the cause of death with her details. We proceeded to call our own private parlour to come and get the body. At this point we had not seen the body.
“When the parlour people got here, we asked to see the body. When we looked, it wasn’t her, but the tag on her said ‘Phumla Mangesi’ and all the other documentation did too.
“They checked in the fridges and she wasn’t there. I called the ward and asked them to check D2 thoroughly and they found her there after 1pm,” relayed Stamper.
“My wife and her sisters are in shock; they need some therapy. Even Phumla is in shock. We had to call relatives in the morning saying she’s dead, now we must call them again and say she isn’t,” Stamper said.
Hospital CEO Rolene Wagner, said the incident had occurred in the early hours of the morning.
The person who died was admitted at 3.30am to bed four in D2.
“She was in a bad state and the nursing staff moved her to a more private side ward, bed two,” she said.
Mangesi was in turn moved from bed two in D2 to bed four, effectively swapping beds with the deceased.
“An unfortunate error occurred in that the junior nurse did not change the name of the patient to correspond with the new bed number in the file in the haste to assist the ill patient,” Wagner explained.
The other patient died before an identification band was placed on her wrist as was procedure and was moved to the mortuary with Mangesi’s file. The deceased’s file remained behind with Mangesi.
She said the night sister in charge met Mangesi’s family to apologise. Furthermore all sisters in-charge were instructed to remind nurses of the protocols regarding handovers and confirming identities.
“We are offering counselling to family members involved and affected by the incident,” Wagner said. —
‘Dead’ patient found alive
IN A case of mistaken identity at Frere Hospital, a patient was declared dead and later found alive in another ward.
The family of the patient, Phumla Mangesi, 50, was called early on Tuesday morning by a sister at the hospital notifying them of the death of their loved one.
Hutton Stamper, who is married to Mangesi’s younger sister, Nombulelo, said his wife could not talk about the trauma.
Stamper said Mangesi had been at the hospital for a month after suffering a stroke and had been admitted to ward D3.
On Monday, they had visited Mangesi and she was fine; they were told she was going to be discharged.
“Around 7am, my wife got a call from one of the ward sisters saying Phumla had passed away. So we came to the hospital, with other family members,” he said.
When they got to D3, they were told that Mangesi had been moved to D2 the night before. At D2 they were given a plastic bag with her clothes marked with her name.
“We were then told to go to the mortuary to fill in a form which explained the cause of death with her details. We proceeded to call our own private parlour to come and get the body. At this point we had not seen the body.
“When the parlour people got here, we asked to see the body. When we looked, it wasn’t her, but the tag on her said ‘Phumla Mangesi’ and all the other documentation did too.
“They checked in the fridges and she wasn’t there. I called the ward and asked them to check D2 thoroughly and they found her there after 1pm,” relayed Stamper.
“My wife and her sisters are in shock; they need some therapy. Even Phumla is in shock. We had to call relatives in the morning saying she’s dead, now we must call them again and say she isn’t,” Stamper said.
Hospital CEO Rolene Wagner, said the incident had occurred in the early hours of the morning.
The person who died was admitted at 3.30am to bed four in D2.
“She was in a bad state and the nursing staff moved her to a more private side ward, bed two,” she said.
Mangesi was in turn moved from bed two in D2 to bed four, effectively swapping beds with the deceased.
“An unfortunate error occurred in that the junior nurse did not change the name of the patient to correspond with the new bed number in the file in the haste to assist the ill patient,” Wagner explained.
The other patient died before an identification band was placed on her wrist as was procedure and was moved to the mortuary with Mangesi’s file. The deceased’s file remained behind with Mangesi.
She said the night sister in charge met Mangesi’s family to apologise. Furthermore all sisters in-charge were instructed to remind nurses of the protocols regarding handovers and confirming identities.
“We are offering counselling to family members involved and affected by the incident,” Wagner said. —
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