Wits University Donald Gordon Medical Centre - Oncology Ward (Ward F) - Johannesburg

Good Morning I have waited until the dust settled before I compose this mail --- last week I was far too emotional and would not have been too objective in what I wrote to you.

My wife has been in the Donald Gordon on quite a few occasions and her last visit there was her last as sadly she passed away in a cold empty room in your hospital.

She was in extreme distress for most of the day of the 20th of March 2015 and I spent the day with her trying to reassure her and generally comforting her.
She was booked in on the morning of Thursday 19th March 2015 and sent to Ward E5. For most of the time she was well looked after until the morning of the 20th, when after being allowed to walk (aided by the Nurse) to the toilet, she had a fall in the toilet when trying to get off the toilet (she was alone). I went to the waiting room whilst she was on the toilet. My daughter came to call me as the nurses were unable to help her off the floor, I picked her up and put her back in bed and asked the nurses to do their job and assist in cleaning her up.

She was moved to the Ward F10 later in the afternoon ( not sure why – the care was not great but better than what was coming in Ward F)and was in a fair amount of distress and kept trying to get up and out of bed. I sat with her with my daughters assisting most of the evening. Towards the late evening she was still in distress and I could not get her to relax and sleep and asked the nurse on duty around 8 PM for medication to at least help her sleep on numerous occasions, I was told they were all too busy they would come when they could, the Sister in charge Jabu I was told was doing an admittance ??

She eventually came and I asked for medication to which she said the Doctor had not prescribed anything. I asked them to contact the doctor to no avail. Eventually I sent an SMS to her Oncologist Doctor Owen Nosworthy only to be told by Sister Jabu I was wasting my time as he was not on duty. She said the switchboard/reception would contact the Doctor on duty, Doctor Naicker but she said she had asked but they were busy with paperwork but would get to it.
Eventually around 9.30 PM they came with a single Stilnox tablet which my wife was almost incapable of taking such was her distress --- I had to administer this tablet and try to wash it down with water I had to fetch --- no help from the nursing staff.

During her struggles my wife must have dislodged the drip and the alarm on the drip was going off constantly --- no one bothered to come !!! (incidentally the same for the lady in the bed next to my wife --- we timed it on one occasion, 15 minutes the drip was buzzing before anyone came).
When Sister Jabu came to reinstall the drip she could not find a vein and made various puncture marks in my wife’s arms and hands –eventually she left and came back with a young nurse(or Sister) from Ward E who installed the drip first time.

My wife eventually settled down and I left around 23.30 back home to Vereeniging.

During that evening my daughter was becoming distraught at her mother’s condition and was reluctant to leave and naively asked a nurse if they check the patients on a regular basis through the night as she was worried she would fall out of the bed. She was told by one of the nurses that they check every hour to which my daughter said that was not enough --- the nurse ( a black lady with lots of reddish make up and high hair dressed differently to the others, pinkish purple top) merely rubbed her forefinger and thumb together and pushed them into my daughter’s face and said “ you want special treatment you pay”

My daughters arranged to come to the hospital around 8 am the next morning and would let me know how their mother was and I would come through a little later.
On arrival my daughters could not find my wife and were advised by the day staff that they had found her in a bed in a room next to the nurses’ station and that she was unresponsive. They entered the room to find their Mother with laboured breathing connected only to Oxygen ( no drips or monitors) --- they immediately called me and I rushed through from Vereeniging. I got there at 9.15 only to find out my wife had been pronounced dead at 9.02 by Doctor Naicker.

This may be a long story but there are so many problems that need to be addressed by the Management and Staff of Donald Gordon Hospital.

• Nurses inadequately trained to handled situations they come up against ( did not know between 3 nurses how to pick up a patient who had fallen)
• Lack of care from the nursing staff ( no worry about patients in distress and drip alarms going off)
• Lack of adequate supervision on night duty (Could not find a responsible person on duty that evening)
• Lack of sensitivity of hospital staff (callous action of asking for money)
• Staff not following procedure. (Surely when a patient is becoming unresponsive a call to the family is paramount)

My wife was left to die in an open room without even the dignity of a curtain on the windows. She was left in that room apparently from 2 AM. On her passing she was left there still with not even a screen or curtain.

We were not even called to come to the hospital.

We hear horror stories about this type of thing from Government hospitals and would not expect anything like this from a hospital with the status of Donald Gordon.
Everywhere we see posters around the hospital about the Urock programme and that we need to help train the best staff ---- my experience makes a mockery of everything the Donald Gordon is supposed to stand for.

No doubt I will receive a reply stating we will look into the matter and I have no doubt NOTHING will happen to correct the situation. It is no wonder our medical fraternity are leaving our country in droves.

I am extremely disgusted with this incident.

Hi Tamaryn, I wish I had read your review before I put my sister there..and I pray others read our review before putting their loved ones there...please let me know if you heard anything from anyone else ...if possible email me ...

The food is atrocious, liquidised mealies with scaly, bony fish is not a meal. A frozen lolly is not icecream. You can't eat a small tub of yoghurt with a tablespoon. You can't give pure pea soup to a patient with diarrhoea and so on and on. What about a cup of tea with breakfast and in the afternoon. Lunch at 2pm on Sunday is not on when your last meal was at 8.00 am and it was small bowel of pap.
It sometimes takes 6 hours for drip to be sorted out. Too scared to complain as I am an old white elderly lady.No white face in sight except for the last day. Then too late.