Patient’s nightmare after operation at EL hospital
Our brother lay in faeces, infested with flies, claims family of stricken man
The family of a man who allegedly lay in bed in his own faeces, with an open wound infested with flies, has accused Frere Hospital of negligence and poor service.
Reginald Durandt, 52, from Amalinda, was admitted to the hospital on April 9 for surgery on a twisted bowel.
His brother, Henry Durandt, said Reginald’s condition deteriorated and another emergency operation had to be performed.
Henry had been shown video footage of his brother shot by a family friend, which showed that he had an open stomach wound with part of his intestines exposed.
“What happened to him yesterday [Tuesday] was terrible, I can’t even find a way to describe it. It was very bad. There was poo still leaking,” he said.
“During the first operation something went wrong. I think something also went wrong in the second operation because he has got a permanent [waste] bag now. They said it would be permanent.”
Family friend Mario Lombard said he took a video of Reginald after he found him in an appalling condition on Tuesday.
“The treatment of the patient, the flies, the faeces that was around in the bed, everything was exposed…that is what was appalling. A Good Samaritan who offered to pay for Reginald’s treatment came forward and said, ‘We need to remove Reggie from this hospital. We can’t leave a man to die like this’,” Lombard said.
“The Good Samaritan will pay for everything at St Dominic’s [hospital] and it will cost R160,000. He said that is the worst he has ever seen.”
Speaking to the Dispatch on Wednesday, Reginald said he was not feeling well.
“Yesterday before the visitors came in, the doctor came and did not clean my wound. He took everything off and said he was coming back now. After the visitors left, my boss came and saw the situation I was in. She went looking for someone to close the wound straight away. There was no staff, no doctors, no nurses around. The doctor took the plasters and everything off and just left me like that.”
“When the doctor came back and saw a nurse putting a plaster on, he said, ‘You don’t put a plaster like that, it’s got to be wet’.
“That was all he said and carried on walking,” he said.
In a text message seen by the Dispatch, Frere chief executive officer Dr Rolene Wagner told another concerned family member that “the doctors had left the wound open for the nurses to clean and change the dressing”.
“However there was only one nurse to dress 35 patients in the ward.
“It did take a while to get to him,” said Wagner in the message.
Wagner referred the Dispatch to the health department for comment.
But health MEC Helen Sauls-August accused the family of violating Durandt’s rights when they filmed the open wound...
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