UNTHINKABLE

Gerard’s stay at Kiaat Private Hospital 20th November until 16th December 2023 (27 days) On the 19th November my husband Gerard Merchiers fell and not realizing that it was severe, I only called for an ambulance early on Monday 20th. We arrived at Kiaat at around 9am. He was examined and we were told that his hip was fractured. By 5pm that Monday, they were not finished yet with the admission, and as I did not want to drive home in the dark, I left Kiaat Hospital then. The next day I was there early and he was admitted and scheduled for his operation on Wednesday 22nd. As he was not wearing his clothes, I asked the staff if I could have his clothes to take home for washing. No one could find his clothing. So clothing disappeared. Apparently, during the operation he had some heart problems so on Thursday morning I found him in ICU where he stayed for 2 days, then moved to High Care. I was surprised that they wanted to do a second CTScan and I had to pay in R3200 (after paying R2700 for the first one) which I refused, only to find out that all of a sudden they took him away for the CTScan after I refused. Doctors did not communicate well and they just did what they wanted without first asking for consent from the patient or his wife. He was not doing too bad and had his first assisted walk to the toilet, if I am not mistaken on the 5th day. Thereafter he was transferred to the surgical ward. Every time I visited my husband, he was asleep and was just like a zombie, I could not wake him because he was so drugged. I fed him as well as I could while he was in this state. I don’t know what happened for breakfast or supper because I was not there. He could not eat nor drink on his own and I didn’t notice that the staff assisted him much (by the way he lost 9 kg during his almost 4 weeks stay in Kiaat). On the 11th December, (3 weeks after his admission), and because his health and wellbeing were going backwards and he was not walking, I asked the doctors to stop all the sleeping/calming medications because by sleeping all the time how does one expect him to walk? The next day when I arrived, he was wide-awake and looked much better than before and they also transferred him back to High Care. All of a sudden, he was motivated to walk so that he could come home. Kiaat also app**** to transfer him to MCare in Nelspruit for rehabilitation, which did not happen because apparently he had an infection? I only learned this by phoning MCare myself to ask them why he could not be transferred while the Medical Aid authorized the transfer? No one at Kiaat could tell me what infection he had. The nurses said they were not allowed to say, it was the doctor’s job. As far as I know, there were 2 doctors involved with my husband. On the last week of his stay a 3rd doctor got involved who wanted to do all kinds of tests and x-rays. I only found that out by my husband the patient. After talking with my husband, he said that he wanted to come home and have no more tests, etc. Luckily, my husband was lucid at that time and told the doctor so, because it seemed that the doctors were always avoiding me. Then the last doctor understood that my husband needed to be discharged once he could be mobile enough for me to look after him myself at home, and that is what happened finally. My husband was sent home after 27 days WITHOUT HIS STITCHES HAVING BEEN REMOVED. I had to take him to a private doctor to have his wound checked and his stitches removed. One could see the expression of disbelieve on the doctor’s face. He also asked if my husband lost a lot of blood? I remember once coming to visit him at Kiaat and he was lying in sheets and hospital gown full of blood. The dressing was changed before I arrived but they did not even bother to change the sheets until I went to complain. So I said yes he lost a lot of blood because I saw the disaster. So the private doctor advised he come in for a drip or he might get anemia. Yes, my husband looked very pale all the time in hospital and he was always cold, before he was admitted he was always rosy in his face. I remember one day when I visited him, he looked so pale and he was not breathing normally but as usual was asleep. I quickly called a nurse and then all of a sudden that nurse called other nurses to assist, all of a sudden there were five nurses around him looking a bit worried and they put him on all kinds of machines. WHAT IF I DID NOT ARRIVE THERE AT THE RIGHT MOMENT FOR HIM????????????? AND REMEMBER THIS WAS IN HIGH CARE! My husband was on a catheter for 27 days, and sometimes the bag was almost overflowing. That is why when he came home, he was incontinent. That was a very easy job in Kiaat. Make him sleep day and night and use a catheter. After 3 weeks being in Kiaat one of the nurses asked me where his toiletry bag was. I said “after being here 3 weeks, you are the first to ask me for it (I had left it in the car because his clothing went missing and I didn’t trust the place), The next day another nurse asked me to bring a towel, soap, washcloth and shampoo. So what did they do the previous 3 weeks????? The day my husband was discharged the nurses gave me a prescription to fetch at the Pharmacy. I asked them what it was for and was told that it was painkillers. I then asked my husband if he had pain, he said NO. I then told the nurse that I did not want the prescription. On our way out, the nurse stopped me and put a packet of panados in my hand and said take these, which I did and said thanks. She then came with plenty more packets she put in my hand. When I was home, I studied these packets she gave me. All of them had my husband’s name printed on them. One sachet had the Panados, 2 were for constipation and about 7 were a dietary supplements. The question now is: why were they not given to him while he was in hospital, why were they in a drawer in the hall and why were they not given to us before we left??? All this is easy, My Medical Aid will pay for it. The bedding and clothing they use do not look clean and some are torn. They must be very old, could also be the reason they looked unclean. One day when I arrived for the visit, my husband was all naked but under a sheet, that day it was not warm. When I asked them why, they said because they haven’t got clean stock available. The side table, the high table for eating were not clean. Every time I visited, I was the one cleaning them. Once my husband messed and he said he had to ask 3 times for it to be cleaned. I know a few government hospitals which are so much cleaner than Kiaat. What a terrible experience we had at Kiaat. What should have taken 5 to six days, took 27 days. If my husband did not insist on no more tests and medications, he might still be there. If we did not have a Medical Aid, he would definitely have been out of there after maximum 6 days. It was easy for them to just claim, claim, claim from my Medical Aid, without our consent. He is now home for 14 days and even though he was walking a bit he now struggles to do so, he does not look well, I’m not sure yet what to do with him as I can’t take him to a doctor, he can’t get into the car. By the way: about 13 years ago, my husband had a hip replacement on the right side, which was done in Middleburg. He walked the next day and was home on the 6th day walking perfectly with crutches and back to work as a baker on the 7th day with crutches. The new method was used to replace his hip. Now 13 years later, this doctor in Kiaat did the hip replacement the old-fashioned way which left him with a 25cm cut instead of 5 cm. In my opinion, this should not be allowed and discussed with the patient/guardian beforehand. What a nightmare we have been through. PS: I went to look at the reviews on Kiaat’s website and I was shocked to see so many negative reviews, if only I had done that before agreeing that the ambulance take him there. On speaking to friends and other people about my experience, many of them reported that they knew other people who also complained about the bad service at Kiaat Private Hospital.