Panorama Hospital did an operation which wasn't needed in order to avoid putting effort into finding the real problem

Below you will find the email which was sent to the hospital 2 weeks ago which has been ignored.

Good day all,

I trust you are well.

I can see that the hospital is dealing with my query as certain things have been rectified, thank you for that ( I won't mention these below as they have already been rectified) however I was told to send a formal email and I feel that the point of my complaint has been missed. It seems like you feel my complaint is about money whereas it is actually about my health and the lack of real assistance received, from a private facility.

On 28.12.2025 I went to the EC with intense chest pressure, I had to sit up and sleep because I couldn't breathe when I lay down. The chest pressure was not a new thing ( the severity of it was) which I discussed with the doctor , I also told him about all the blood tests I had recently done and was able to share the results with him, I had an Xray to show him , My history of being on GERD medication as well as anxiety medication which did not help , as well as the report from the cardiologist I had seen 2 weeks prior who had cleared me of any heart related issues. I basically had a full medical history to share with him to assist him to assist me who couldn't breathe properly.

He proceeded to arrange the ECG ( which makes sense) , Do blood tests ( which I don't fully agree with seeing as I had results to share but accept that he needed to double check) and after a few hours came back to me and literally said " I don't know how to help you" and then said that it sounds like it could maybe be pericarditis , to which I kicked up a fuss as I had been cleared by DR Posen @ N1 City. That is when he made contact with the cardiologist at Panorama who apparently agreed that it was pericarditis ( not sure if he knew about my cardiologist report) . He then gave me a script and a referral for the scope about GERD and sent me on my way.

I bought said medication which cost me R1200, took it for 2 days and fell violently ill, The whatsapp survey popped up and I completed it which is then when Dr Erasmus entered the picture.

She asked me to come in on 02.01.2026 to take a second look. She IMMEDIATELY said that there is no way that I have pericarditis otherwise Dr Posen would have picked that up and that she doesn't know how they got to that conclusion ( Her words, not mine but I fully agree with her as I know I don't have pericarditis due to the intense cardiologist visit I had recently had).

She gave me a long explanation about how we had to cancel things out to find the cause and that we can start with the Xray and Ultrasound ( I told her again that I have an Xray but she wanted a new one, I didn't agree but accepted it). It was in the ultrasound that she saw the gallstone and went straight to Dr Kies , even though I made it clear that I wasn't experiencing any of the gallbladder related symptoms. She came back and said I would be admitted on Monday , they would do the surgery to remove it and that a CT scan would be done if I still had the pressure. I left and was later told that I had to do a consultation on the Monday, scope on the Wednesday and Surgery on the Thursday. I called her and told her that the stories were conflicting and that I needed help now because my symptoms were still very much there and I was really struggling to do anything. I got a call back to say I can come back to EC and I will be admitted and everything will be sorted.

That was true but only in relation to the Gallbladder, Dr Kies was great. He did the surgery , He did the scope and found no acid reflux, ulcers , Tumors etc but a lot of inflammation which we both agreed was due to the abuse of NSAIDS due to me trying too hard to relieve whatever was going on in my chest so I can breathe.

All the while, my chest pressure and breathing never got better. I asked on many occasions what else was going to be done and I was told that I was there for the Gallbladder and Scope and that's it ( Not what I was originally told).

On top of all of that, on the day that I had the surgery done I was in so much pain and kept asking the nurses for pain medication and told that they will come when they are done , Only when my pain was so severe that another patient got up and went to find someone did I get pain medication, Why did it have to get to that point? We won't say that we are in pain if we are not. I also had extreme dizziness when I was discharged ( I told the nurse and she said it will go away) and I still have it. I was back at the EC on 11.01.2026 due to this and was given medication which should have taken it away but it has not.

So yes when looking at costs , this has cost me alot of my MSA as well as privately ( the first ER visit) but it's more than that, it's the fact that I was at the EC twice for HELP and I wasn't helped. On both occasions , both doctors just found something to point to and went with that. Dr Erasmus knew that my symptoms weren't due to my gallbladder but went down that path as she was able to pass me over to someone else.

That's not what the medical field is supposed to be about , we pay medical aid and cash to go to private facilities to help us because we cannot help ourselves.

I have now spent money, been off from work, had to deal with struggling to breath while laying in a private facility and for what? for nothing because nothing was essentially done to help me.

Ultimately I started my journey at Panorama hospital with chest pressure and struggling to breathe and I left without a gallbladder and I am still having chest pressure and struggling to breathe. I am no better off than I was when I arrived, actually worse, and that is deeply disappointing.