Mother Alleges Hospital Negligent in Daughter’s Death • Tabloid Newspapers

A grieving mother, Pam Moonsamy, is fighting for justice for her late daughter, 32-year-old Selestine Moonsamy of Clayfield, who died on Wednesday, July 10, at the Mahatma Gandhi Hospital, allegedly due to negligence.

Moonsamy, who joined members of the non-profit Woman PACT and a group of supporters at a protest march outside the public health facility on July 18 (Mandela Day) to demand justice, said her daughter had been hospitalized due to fluid retention in her legs.

She told the Phoenix Tabloid that she has spent every day at her daughter’s bedside since her admission to the hospital and has witnessed the negligence of the staff at the facility.

“We rushed Selestine to Mahatma Gandhi Hospital as she was in severe pain and when we reached the hospital, we put her in a wheelchair and took her to the emergency room. We explained to the nurse that she was retaining fluid and was in severe pain. The nurse asked why we were taking her there and told us to go to the outpatient clinic. When we reached there, we were asked why we were there and told to go back to the emergency room. A nurse from MOPD helped us by conducting a medical examination before taking my daughter back to the emergency room,” Moonsamy said.

She said they waited in the emergency room for hours without any help from any of the nurses. Moonsamy recalled Selestine “screaming and crying in pain” and no one came to her aid.

“I finally asked one of the nurses for gauze to put on Selestine’s leg because the fluid was seeping out. I kept asking the nurses and doctors for help, and they kept telling me that someone would take care of her, but no one did. We went home and came back to the hospital the next morning, she was still in a lot of pain and was still in the emergency room with no bandage on her leg. Her bed was messy, I asked a nurse to help me and she gave me linen, which I used to cover my daughter’s leg before I left for work,” Moonsamy said.

Moonsamy said that when she returned from work, Selestine had been transferred to the ward. “She was not given any medication to help her recover. She was not given any medication for the entire weekend, it was only on Monday, July 8th that her leg was finally bandaged. She was in a lot of pain and started kicking and thrashing around in pain. She had been in pain for several days and no one was there to help her. I made an appointment on Tuesday, July 9th to have my daughter seen and cared for. She was told that her organs were failing. She had no IV and was just lying in bed in severe pain. There was no oxygen tank for her to use and her condition continued to deteriorate,” the mother said emotionally.

“I wanted to save my child’s life so badly that I wanted to take her to another hospital where they had the resources and facilities to help save her. I begged and pleaded with the doctor to refer my daughter to Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital where she was a patient before but she refused. This hospital failed my daughter, they did not even try to save her life. I did everything myself, from changing her bandages, feeding her, changing her sheets and attending to her every day, no nurse helped my child in her time of need. At one point, my daughter was lying on her side with her hands tied to the bed, she could not move or turn the other way, she had bruises all over her body and it was so heartbreaking to see. She died in my hands, a sight I will never forget,” Moonsamy said.

She alleged that negligence at the hospital led to her daughter’s death. “I want justice, not just for my baby, but for the entire community that is still suffering in this hospital. My daughter would be alive today and looking forward to her 33rd birthday in August if she had not been denied basic healthcare and if the hospital had not been negligent. I am very disheartened by the nurses and doctors at this hospital. I want to see change, I want the nurses and doctors to love and care for people. We need more loving, caring and empathetic medical staff,” Moonsamy said.

Woman PACT used their 67 Minutes to make an impact and joined the peaceful protest outside the Mahatma Gandhi Hospital, calling for better healthcare and justice for young mother Selestine.

Pamela Padayachee of Woman PACT told the Phoenix Tabloid: “We felt it was important to highlight the issue of decent healthcare, particularly with the disturbing stories of negligence and neglect coming out of the Mahatma Gandhi Hospital. We have received many complaints over the past two weeks about the treatment or lack thereof that patients receive at the hospital. It was vital for us to spend our 67 minutes on this Mandela Day protesting outside this hospital as an expression of solidarity with the patients inside, but also to say that it is time to stand up and unite, to hold our government and public servants accountable to ensure that they provide decent, accessible and quality healthcare to all citizens, regardless of race, colour, creed or whether you can afford it or not.

“It is deeply disturbing and concerning that a young woman and mother of a four-year-old girl, who was recently laid off from her job and lost her medical care, lost her life in the most heartbreaking way, after she sought help from the Mahatma Gandhi Hospital. At one point, she was even denied access to oxygen and that could have been a complicating factor that could have led to her death. I believe this could have been contained if she had been stabilized and transferred to another hospital to get the healthcare she needed. There are many other Selestines and their stories are not heard, they have no voice and when you are poor, that voice becomes even softer. We will continue to use our platform to fight and be a voice for the voiceless.”

The Ministry of Health has been contacted, but no comment had been made at the time of going to press.