The family of Lucky Khumalo (43), previously a Life Esidimeni patient, want answers after he was violently assaulted at a Johannesburg psychiatric hospital – while he was sleeping – resulting in the loss of his eye.
Khumalo’s brother, Sibusiso, has criticised Solomon Stix Morewa Memorial Hospital’s “casual approach” to the matter and is demanding a thorough investigation by the Gauteng Health Department to hold to account those responsible.
The family told News24 they want to know how he was so brutally attacked in his sleep that he lost an eye, and why his injury was only casually relayed to them by a nurse.
“They just told us he had been injured after somebody hit him with a chair, but that he was going to be okay. They never gave a detailed description of the injuries or his physical condition,” his brother said.
However, the family became increasingly anxious as they struggled to get more accurate information. They were later told Khumalo had been transferred to Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital.
“I got a call later on the Monday night to say doctors needed me to sign consent forms at Charlotte Maxeke because my brother had to have an operation. The information ended there,” said Sibusiso, who then drove to the hospital the next day.
“At first glance, I couldn’t recognise my own brother. His face was swollen all the way up to above his forehead. The left-hand side was skewed, the eye was heavily swollen, and you could see where he was stitched. He had a huge cut on his lower jaw.”
He was devastated.
“I had never had this feeling before. It was worse than when my parents died.”
Sibusiso said he took photos of his brother to document his condition, realising that the management of Solomon Stix Morewa Memorial Hospital had not communicated the severity of the assault.
‘They did not treat this matter with urgency’
"I was very upset. He was in a critical condition… you could see that he was in pain.”
His brother’s left eye was so severely damaged it had to be removed on 17 November.
“You could see he had been constantly beaten on the face…to the extent where his eye socket was totally damaged. Can you imagine the type of object used… the type of force that was applied for that to happen?”
He slammed the hospital management for their “casual approach to such a grave matter”.
“We went through the whole Life Esidimeni tragedy, where my brother vanished for two weeks and we couldn’t find him. Now he will now have to go through a whole new trauma of a brutal assault that led to him losing his eye,” he said.
The family wants Gauteng Health to conduct a thorough investigation and hold those responsible accountable.
Regret
Solomon Stix Morewa Memorial Hospital manager Fabion Bennett confirmed Khumalo had been asleep when he was “severely assaulted” with a blunt object by another patient.
Bennett said nursing, medical and security teams promptly intervened and provided immediate emergency care to Khumalo.
“After assessment and stabilisation, he was transferred to Charlotte Maxeke Hospital,” he said. The patient responsible for the attack was transferred to an acute mental health facility, he added.
Bennett expressed deep regret, saying the hospital was conducting a comprehensive review to determine the exact circumstances leading up to the assault.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Life Esidimeni judgment opens door for prosecutions
Esidimeni victims found in pile of unclaimed bodies
Life Esidimeni inquest: ‘He vomited for four weeks and then he starved to death’