Vuyokazi Fikeleni, 30, is slowly learning to walk again after she was paralysed from the waist down following the birth of her daughter in the Mthatha General Hospital three years ago.
Her baby, Esona, was delivered via caesarian section, which left her paralysed after hospital staff gave her injections to relieve the pain during the procedure.
Fikeleni instituted a medical negligence lawsuit, resulting in an R8.6-million payout, which the Eastern Cape department of health settled two months ago.
The former farmer worker was admitted to hospital on May 28 2013 for what she thought would be a normal delivery.
She was repeatedly injected with pain killers in her neck and stomach.
“After the injection my stomach grew cold. I told the doctor that my stomach was cold and the nurse injected me again.
“I felt my legs grow cold. They then assisted me to give birth ,” Fikeleni said.
After giving birth she was then taken to a ward to rest.
“I told the nurse I was not feeling well, the nurse told me to report it to the doctor the next morning.
“On the same night I was requested to get up and walk to the washing basin. I could not get up. I was then assisted to the washing basin.”
She was discharged from the hospital three days later.
Back at Kaplan village, 10km from Mthatha, Fikeleni could not tend to her infant due to excruciating pain in her neck and head, and she struggled to stand or walk.
“I could not urinate for a week and spent a month without going to the toilet to do a number two,” she said.
Her mother, Nombuyiselo January, took her to a private doctor in town in July, where Fikeleni said she was given laxatives.
“That did not help and I was still unable to go to the toilet,” she said.
Fikeleni returned to the Mthatha General Hospital that same month to seek medical help.
Once there, she said hospital staff told her she needed to be admitted but there was no bed available. She was given a wheelchair and told to return at a later stage.
When she returned in October, she was finally admitted, and stayed in hospital for a month.
However, she wept as she recalled the verbal abuse she suffered at the hands of staff at the hospital.
“I grew tired of sleeping at the hospital for days without end while not being helped.”
After a month of being told to take pills and not getting better, she left the hospital and returned home.
Fikeleni, who is now bound to her bed in her mother’s three-room house, cannot control her bladder as she feels no sensation, and her bowels do not function normally. — zwangam@dispatch.co.za
MEDICINE WITHOUT CARE: Mom walks three years after incident
Her baby, Esona, was delivered via caesarian section, which left her paralysed after hospital staff gave her injections to relieve the pain during the procedure.
Fikeleni instituted a medical negligence lawsuit, resulting in an R8.6-million payout, which the Eastern Cape department of health settled two months ago.
The former farmer worker was admitted to hospital on May 28 2013 for what she thought would be a normal delivery.
She was repeatedly injected with pain killers in her neck and stomach.
“After the injection my stomach grew cold. I told the doctor that my stomach was cold and the nurse injected me again.
“I felt my legs grow cold. They then assisted me to give birth ,” Fikeleni said.
After giving birth she was then taken to a ward to rest.
“I told the nurse I was not feeling well, the nurse told me to report it to the doctor the next morning.
“On the same night I was requested to get up and walk to the washing basin. I could not get up. I was then assisted to the washing basin.”
She was discharged from the hospital three days later.
Back at Kaplan village, 10km from Mthatha, Fikeleni could not tend to her infant due to excruciating pain in her neck and head, and she struggled to stand or walk.
“I could not urinate for a week and spent a month without going to the toilet to do a number two,” she said.
Her mother, Nombuyiselo January, took her to a private doctor in town in July, where Fikeleni said she was given laxatives.
“That did not help and I was still unable to go to the toilet,” she said.
Fikeleni returned to the Mthatha General Hospital that same month to seek medical help.
Once there, she said hospital staff told her she needed to be admitted but there was no bed available. She was given a wheelchair and told to return at a later stage.
When she returned in October, she was finally admitted, and stayed in hospital for a month.
However, she wept as she recalled the verbal abuse she suffered at the hands of staff at the hospital.
“I grew tired of sleeping at the hospital for days without end while not being helped.”
After a month of being told to take pills and not getting better, she left the hospital and returned home.
Fikeleni, who is now bound to her bed in her mother’s three-room house, cannot control her bladder as she feels no sensation, and her bowels do not function normally. — zwangam@dispatch.co.za
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