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The grieving mother of a 26-year-old heavily pregnant woman, who allegedly died by suicide inside a bathroom at the Kopanong Provincial Hospital in Vereeniging on Sunday morning, has accused the facility of negligence.
Kedibone Thamae, from Sharpville in Phomolong, said the death of her daughter could have been prevented if the hospital staff had taken precautions, treated her as a high-risk patient and moved her to a facility that had resources for mentally ill patients. Thamae said:
READ: SAPS probes pregnant patient’s suicide at Kopanong hospital.
Thamae told City Press that she got a call to go to the hospital at around 3am on Saturday, adding:
Thamae said she wanted answers because the news of her child's death still felt like a dream. "I’m hurt that I lost my first grandchild and my daughter in such a painful manner."
She explained her daughter's short mental illness began last Thursday. She was called back from work by her neighbours who told her that her daughter, Refilwe, was walking the streets, behaving violently, picking up plastics and throwing them everywhere.
"She was totally fine before this. I don’t want to lie and say she had underlying mental [health] issues. It just all happened on Thursday and sadly, she was left unattended, for all I know. I did not see where she hanged herself. I was told she hanged herself," she added.
Thamae said she was with Refilwe's 11-year-old sibling when she got the news from the hospital.
READ: 9% of teen deaths in SA are by suicide - study
"We are not okay. We cannot be okay! We just need time to process all this. It really hurts; that's all I can tell the world. I don’t know how I'll recover from this."
She said she felt like the hospital did not tell her the whole truth regarding the events that led to her daughter’s death.
"I took her to hospital to live, not to die. I'm hurt and what makes it worse is not having the money to bury her. If we don't get the money by the end of the week, her burial will have to be postponed until we get donations from the community and the family. Who was watching her? Why was she not sedated and restrained? When I left on Friday evening, the nurses had her restrained and her hands were tied. They were supposed to move her to another facility, but they decided to keep her in that facility."
Gauteng health spokesperson Motalatale Modiba confirmed the incident: "We can confirm that a 26-year-old pregnant patient was presented at Kopanong hospital’s accident and emergency unit on September 8. She was escorted by her mother. The patient was seen by a doctor, who eventually diagnosed her. She was then admitted to a maternity ward, where sedation and restraint were prescribed and applied."
Modiba said the patient was later nursed in a side ward due to her condition being triggered by crying babies:
Modiba assured that the department’s quality assurance unit would also conduct an internal investigation, "as this case falls under the ambit of patient safety incidents, which include suicides. The internal process takes 60 days to conclude," he said.
Gauteng police spokesperson Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi said an inquest docked into Refilwe’s death had been opened and an investigation was under way.
