Man accuses hospital of negligence after wife’s death
'I still miss her every day," said bereaved husband.
More than a year after his wife’s death, Hendry van Vuuren (51) is still mourning – and still angry.
In 2013 his wife, Madelein, who was 44 at the time of her passing, complained of pain in her side. The Van Vuuren family went to Leratong Hospital, where she was diagnosed with alleged pancreatic cancer. Shortly afterwards, surgery was performed to remove the ‘tumor’. According to Hendry, his wife’s surgical wound was open when she returned home, which upset him. Regardless of the operation, which was deemed a success by the doctor, Madelein kept on complaining about pain. They returned to the doctor who told her the cancer had spread and there was nothing he could do for her. He prescribed an excessively high dosage of 10mg of morphine, to be taken three times a day, to control the pain.
Initial Article: Shocking stats released of negligence claims against state hospitals
Hendry said over the next four years his wife’s health systematically deteriorated until she died on 5 February 2016. After the doctor did the the autopsy, he asked Hendry what had been wrong with his wife. The doctor was dumbfounded when Henry told him his wife had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer several years previously. He told Hendry he’d found no trace of cancer in his wife’s body. The doctor was even more shocked when he was told about the large amount of morphine she was taking. According to the postmortem examination (which the Record has in its possession) Madelein’s death was caused by coronary artery insufficiency. In layman’s terms, this means that the diameter of her arteries had been reduced by 50 per cent, which led to her suffering a heart attack. Hendry is convinced the morphine caused the reduction.
“I didn’t know I could lay a claim against the hospital for negligence until I recently saw an article about negligence at state hospitals in the Record.
No money in the world can bring my wife back or take my heartache away, but I want justice,” said Hendry. “But I do not even know where to start such a process,” he said despondently.
According to a recent report, there are claims for medical negligence against Leratong Hospital to the tune of more than R22 million.
The Record is in the process of obtaining comment from the Department of Health.
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