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The elderly woman begging for help, in a widely shared video taken at Wentworth Hospital, died.
Rowena Hawkey (69) is seen in the clip apparently in extreme respiratory distress, pleading for help. The patients are shown lying on the floor and hunched over in chairs without assistance from medical personnel.
Hawkey is shown yelling, “I can’t breathe! Please get me out of here. Hi, hi. [indistinguishable]. I’m going to die like this. This tube here, please give it to me. I have asked everyone to help me … Nobody wants to help me. nobody. I can’t live like this, “he cries.
The man recording it says, “It’s fucking shit, I’m recording this and putting it on social media.”
A screenshot from the video shows a man, who is a patient in the hospital, sleeping on the floor.
Speaking to The Witness on Tuesday night, Hawkey’s nephew, Allon Pretorius, said he died the day the images were taken, on January 6. He said the family only saw the video on the Monday after Hawkey’s death.
“I couldn’t sleep last night after watching that video. I was awake for a long time because every time I closed my eyes I saw it.
“We are all very distressed by that,” he said. He said the family was planning to have a private funeral in Durban and possibly broadcast it on video for their loved ones in different parts of the world, as one of the Hawkey sisters is in England and the other in Port Elizabeth, while he is in Roodepoort. and others. They are in Knysna.
“We can’t travel because of Covid and all that.” He said Hawkey lived with his family when he was in high school, so he grew very close to her.
The Health Department confirmed Monday that the hospital depicted in the clip was Wentworth.
“As a Department, we learned about this video last weekend and immediately dispatched a delegation of senior managers from central office to establish the facts and reach an immediate resolution of the situation.”
The department said it had established that the patients in the clip were awaiting their Covid-19 results, also known as Patients Under Investigation (PUI).
“On the day in question, the hospital had received a particularly high number of patients. In addition, 11 doctors were absent in isolation, after testing positive. Another 17 members of the nursing staff were out due to Covid-19. Six nurses were to in charge of the Accident and Emergency Unit, as well as a short-stay room with 28 beds for very sick patients.
They said that the “delegation from the central office has since assisted the hospital to ensure that the flow of patients is managed correctly”, through the following interventions:
· Make modifications to the Wentworth Hospital Accident and Emergency Unit, which has created space for more beds, which will help alleviate congestion;
· Sending recovering patients to Clairwood Hospital, which has ample space, while those needing oxygen are sent to isolation.
They said that the availability of rapid Covid-19 tests will progressively reduce the time patients spend waiting for their results.
“We have a serious and deadly pandemic on our hands, which is now our own creation.”
Dr. Rishigen Viranna, DA’s KZN Health spokesperson, said they were horrified by the video.
“While we understand that the KZN healthcare system is extremely stretched, the conditions and lack of patient care are completely unacceptable, inhumane, and possibly unconstitutional. Section 27 of the South African Constitution confirms the right of access to adequate medical care. “
