A formal complaint has been lodged with the SA Human Rights Commission by a man who was misdiagnosed with HIV a quarter of a century ago, and whose life fell apart as a direct consequence, reports IOL.
Mark Johannes (56) said no one has ever been held accountable for his ordeal after the diagnosis from a doctor in 2001, when he was living in George.
Believing he was facing a death sentence, the BMW car salesman lost his job, his family left him, and he gave up on life because he thought he was “going to die anyway”.
In 2005, after spending four years believing he was going to die, Johannes said his doctor had called him in and admitted he did not know how it had happened, but that he was HIV-negative.
The doctor described it as “spontaneous healing”, he said. “But those people had destroyed me.”
He said it was the years of mental agony – coupled with learning just three weeks ago that no one could be held accountable after he believed for years his case was still under investigation – that finally pushed him to file a complaint with the SAHRC this month.
How it happened
Johannes, who now lives in Cape Town, said his initial HIV+ diagnosis came after he developed a severe skin condition and visited a dermatologist.
While there, he also asked for an HIV test to check his status. A few days later, the doctor phoned to tell him the test had come back positive.
“To make triple sure”, further tests were conducted – and Johannes said he was then told he was HIV-negative.
But later that same year, while applying for a life insurance policy, Johannes underwent a third HIV test. The samples were sent to PathCare Pathology – the same lab had processed the first two tests – and the results had again came back positive.
Johannes said the diagnosis destroyed his life, and the emotional toll left him a broken man.
Fast forward
After all these years, he is still trying to hold someone accountable, he said, because after a complaint to the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA), it was apparently found that no medical negligence had been committed.
Fed up, last week he took his fight to the SAHRC.
SAHRC commissioner Chris Nissen confirmed the commission had received the complaint and would be taking on the case.
The HPCSA’s Priscilla Sekhonyana told IOL: “The matter was investigated and subsequently finalised by the HPCSA in 2007 at a preliminary inquiry meeting.
“The committee resolved that no breach of medical care could be established as the practitioner was communicating the results from the laboratory.”
PathCare CEO JW Douglas said the company received a letter from Johannes in April, and that it was the first communication it had received relating to the 2001 tests.
“Due to POPIA we are unfortunately restricted in terms of what we can reply, which is a pity as a substantive reply would have placed us and yourself in the position where we can explain exactly what occurred,” Douglas told IOL. He said none of the clinicians or PathCare were at fault.
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