The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) is investigating a Bronkhorstspruit doctor after a teenage boy died, and another had to be admitted to hospital after both were seen in his rooms for what were supposed to be routine medical circumcisions, reports News24.
SAPS has also opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the tragedy.
Siyabonga Mbonani (13), and another 14-year-old boy both visited Dr Nimrod Thapelo Machebe’s practice – outside Pretoria – on 2 July, and both were attended to simultaneously, according to their parents.
Siyabonga’s mother, Nthabiseng Mbonani, said her son had been taken to the doctor with his father that morning but at about 11am, she received a panicked message from the father.
When she arrived at the doctor’s rooms, the boy’s father was in a state of panic.
“I kept asking him to tell me what had happened, but all that came out was something about an overdose,” she said.
“He told me our child … was supposed to receive 2mg (of lignocaine, an anaesthetic) but instead had been injected with 10mg.”
When she saw the doctor, he told her: “Your child will be fine. I have inserted a drip that will drain him, and afterwards, he will wake up.”
The parents were told they could leave and that he would call them once Siyabonga had regained consciousness, but she refused to go.
Mbonani saw people she assumed were paramedics attending to her son and said when she asked to see Siyabonga, the doctor said he was being resuscitated.
“This meant things were serious. I told the doctor my son needed to be taken to a hospital.”
She was assured that her son “would wake up”.
Mbonani said she waited in the car for a while before going back and demanding to see her child so he could be taken to the hospital.
“The doctor said to me that if we take him to the hospital, he will be declared dead.”
Eventually, she was allowed into the room where Siyabonga was.
“He was unresponsive, lying on his side … with a drip, an oxygen mask on, and with his chest being rubbed by two gentlemen,” she said.
She felt a “glimmer of hope” when government paramedics arrived, but they left without him. Only when her sister and Siyabonga’s paternal aunt arrived did the doctor admit that Siyabonga had died.
Second patient botched
Meanwhile, the 14-year-old boy was also struggling. The boy’s father, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told News24 he was present when both boys were taken in.
“They entered the surgery at the same time. I stepped out to give them space because the room is small,” he said.
“I soon realised they were taking too long, and when I entered the room, both boys were convulsing – the doctor was nowhere to be seen.”
He described a chaotic scene, with staff attempting to restrain the boys while they were having seizures.
His son was taken to another room and when the doctor appeared and he was asked what was happening, the father was told he had given the boys 10mg of lignocaine instead of 2mg, “but he claimed he was reversing it… he kept saying the children would be fine”.
According to the father, instead of calling paramedics, the doctor allegedly called a towing company, which brought first responders.
“I don’t even know what their medical qualifications are, and if they had the equipment to help the children. I don’t even know if they can do chest compressions. Whereas the hospital was close,” he said.
The parent said his son experienced seizures for nearly two hours before he called private paramedics himself.
“They took my child to Die Wilgers Hospital, where he was admitted. He has since been discharged,” he said.
“At the hospital, my son kept asking about the other child because he remembered that he had started seizuring (sic) first.”
Investigations
HPCSA spokesperson Priscilla Sekhonyana confirmed an investigation into alleged unprofessional conduct was under way.
SAPS spokesperson Lt Colonel Mavela Masondo said the police were investigating the circumstances leading to the teenager’s death.
The Mbonani family is also pursuing a civil case against Machebe. Machebe has not responded to multiple calls, messages and emails sent since last week Wednesday.
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