More than a year after Bernard Katz was admitted to the Netcare Rosebank Hospital and later died there, during which time his sim card was stolen and more than R150 000 drained from his bank account, his family is still awaiting answers.
Katz was admitted in January 2021 for minor surgery, and on arrival, handed his valuables, including his wallet, to the staff. On one occasion, he gave them his cellphone to charge.
His family said his cellphone SIM card was removed and replaced with another, and from then on, they were unable to communicate with him. It was during level five lockdown, reports News24.
“When I called the hospital and asked why I could not get hold of him, they said he was sleeping. I knew he was not sleeping the whole time, so I got concerned,” said his daughter-in-law, Linda Serebro.
When she eventually got hold of him, Katz asked her to come and get his valuables. When she contacted his cellphone company to find out what was wrong with the phone, they said the SIM card in the phone was not Katz’s. Serebro said Katz’s email password was also changed.
“I realised something was going on. I called the bank and asked whether any transactions had been made while he was in the hospital, and they said transactions worth R153 500 had been made. These included airtime purchases, EFT transfers and ATM cash payouts.”
A few days before Katz was supposed to be discharged from hospital, he was having breakfast when he felt ill. “I got a call from the physician saying he had been rushed into ICU. He said he suspected organophosphate poisoning. I asked if he was talking (about) rat poison, and he said yes,” Serebro said.
“The doctor said he had all the tell-tale signs of rat poisoning. The heart rate dropping, becoming hot and cold, and the pupils becoming the size of pinpricks.”
Katz’s daughter, Sharon Brener, who lives in the US, was visiting South Africa at the time, and went to the hospital.
When they arrived, he was on a ventilator. His organs were shutting down, and they had to revive him.
Brener said the doctors promised to investigate the matter if results returned positive. But, more than a year later, the family still does not have autopsy results. Katz died in the hospital in May 2021.
She said if the hospital had intervened when the family raised the alarm over the theft, Katz’s life would have been saved.
“A month after he went into the hospital, he was declining, and we watched him wither away. We know it is from the poisoning. We reported the theft to Netcare, and we were worried that whoever stole from him and poisoned him was still in the hospital.
“Netcare did nothing to prevent him from being killed. They knew in February that someone had taken dad’s SIM card and drained his bank accounts. They knew that person was there, and that made dad a target. Between February and when he died in May, nothing was done.”
The family filed a summons against Netcare in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg). They want the hospital to repay the stolen money, with interest, as well as R20m in damages for how Katz was allegedly treated.
The regional director of Netcare’s South West Region, Nolan Daniels, said: “We cannot comment further as the matter remains sub-judice.”
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Rampant stealing by officials will collapse SA’s health system — Heywood
Former Chatsworth hospital employee charged with theft of R250,000 dialysis machine
Health system corruption an ‘ignored pandemic’ — Transparency International
Healthcare corruption trends laid bare in ACT report