How did she bleed to death?
FOR NEARLY a year, an emkhomazi businessman has made desperate attempts to get closure on the unexpected death of his wife, who was a patient at a private hospital.
Simphiwe Maphumulo’s wife, Mpilonhle Pearl, died a day after giving birth at Kingsway Private Hospital in April, and he claims it was due to medical negligence.
In his quest for justice, Maphumulo has made numerous attempts to obtain the results of a post-mortem to escalate his claim against the hospital. But he said he was given the “runaround”.
Maphumulo said he had been back and forth to the hospital, the Gale Street mortuary and even the KZN MEC for Health for assistance – without success.
He said Mpilonhle, 28, a banker, had a hassle-free pregnancy, but a few hours after birth doctors said she developed a blood clot in her lung.
“I was with her during birth of our baby girl. I returned home and we continued to chat online for the rest of the night.
“However, I received a call from the hospital the next morning and was told her heart rate was dropping.”
He rushed to the hospital and was asked to spend the last few minutes with his wife.
“I watched as she took her last breath. At that point, my whole world crashed. I couldn’t understand what went wrong because she was fine. She did have a fibroid problem but that wasn’t life-threatening.”
Maphumulo said he was largely unhappy with Mpilonhle’s treatment at the hospital, and said doctors should have detected the complication sooner. “They could have moved her immediately to intensive care. Instead, she was kept in a general ward.
“At the time of her death, I noticed the sides of her bed sheets were covered in blood. It appeared as though she bled through the night.”
At the time, police opened an inquest docket and Mpilonhle’s body was taken to the Gale Street mortuary for a post-mortem.
Maphumulo said he was baffled by his wife’s death and started to ask questions.
“I went to medical experts and medical lawyers for advice. They all said something was amiss. I was advised to take legal action; all I needed were the postmortem results,” he said.
He has since made countless trips to the mortuary but was fed “excuse after excuse”.
“They told me the report was stuck with a typist. Each time I went thereafter, they said it wasn’t ready. I even spoke to the doctor who conducted the post-mortem and he said he handed it over to the typist,” said Maphumulo.
He made a few more trips this week, only to be told by a manager on duty that the results had been sent to the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital.
“I was gobsmacked. My wife wasn’t even a patient at Albert Luthuli, so why would they send it there? It’s like this post-mortem has just vanished. Surprisingly, the doctor who treated my wife at Kingsway said she knew the results of the post-mortem and that it confirmed it was a blood clot,” he claimed.
He said this runaround had prevented him from getting closure on Mpilonhle’s death and he was concerned that he wouldn’t be able to take the matter further.
“I contacted the office of the Health MEC and went to his offices to meet him, but I didn’t see him,” he said.
Annatjie Demetriou, general manager of the Kingsway Hospital, said she wished to convey her condolences to the Maphumulo family.
“Her death was classified as unnatural. In such a case, and in terms of South African law, a court inquest must be held. The court inquest will investigate the cause of death and the court will make its findings known.
“The hospital is prohibited by law from providing any speculative information prior to the court ruling on its findings,” said Demetriou.
However, a medic at the hospital, who was aware of Maphumulo’s wife’s death, said Mpilonhle died during post-operative recovery despite the medical team’s best efforts to resuscitate her.
Spokesperson for the KZN Department of Health, Ncumisa Mafunda, said: “After being approached for comment on Thursday, the department brought this matter to the attention of the acting director of forensic pathology services. He is looking into it with a view to establishing the facts and then will act accordingly.”