The family of a 76-year-old woman from Middelburg, Mpumalanga, is claiming millions of rands in damages from the Health Department after she was allegedly “left to rot” in a state hospital bed. According to Rapport, five close family members of Bets Claassen are claiming at least R1.55m each from the Mpumalanga Health Department.
In court papers, they say they could see Claassen was already dead when a nurse insisted: “Her vital signs are still good.” The patient died from septicaemia caused by bed sores. The family says they were ordered not to touch the patient. After her death, they saw that maggots were eating Claassen’s flesh and that large parts of her body was rotten.
Claassen had been in hospital for months while awaiting hip surgery. The department claims in its opposing papers the hospital was not negligent. Although it admits that there was “possible mismanagement” of the patient and that nurses “possibly didn’t execute clinical instructions”, such as turning Claassen in her bed every two hours, this was not due to negligence but to limited resources.
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