Viral video shows nurse verbally abusing elderly patient
The 30-year-old woman who shot a now-viral video of a St Mary's Hospital nurse allegedly verbally abusing an elderly patient – who later died – cannot get the image of the ward mate’s lifeless body out of her head.
The woman died the morning after the video was taken. "Every time I close my eyes‚ I see her. Her body lay in our room for hours after she died‚" she told TimesLIVE.
The woman discharged herself from the Pinetown hospital‚ just outside Durban‚ on Tuesday after the patient died and decided to post the video on Facebook to "help other patients”. She did not want to be named because she has since faced death threats.
The video‚ which has gone viral‚ shows a nurse telling a bedridden patient to "get up" and use the bed pan.
"It's better to be a man because you don't have any responsibilities but you are a mother. Move your body. Sit up. Sit up. There is a bed pan for you at the side of your bed so you don't pee yourself. You can't keep wearing a diaper because it's going to give you a rash.
"I am going to tell you as a nurse. I am going to tell you woman to woman. You have children. You can’t just lay back and people to do this and that for you. You can’t do that. You have to try as a woman to move your body. So even tomorrow you’ll need someone to put a diaper on you‚” the nurse can be heard saying in the video.
The post received mixed responses online‚ as some believe that the nurse was motivating the patient. Others went as far as threatening the woman who shared the video.
"I am scared for my family. I don’t know these people. They have sent me messages saying they will come after me for posting this video and will hurt my family.
“I don’t want my name out there because I am afraid. I shared that video to help other patients who could suffer the same way. I shared it so there would be changes‚ but now I am more traumatised‚" she told TimesLIVE.
The KwaZulu-Natal health department said it would respond to the allegations against the nurse on Wednesday.