A Makokoba family bulldozed its way into a ward at Mpilo Central Hospital and forcibly took away a relative admitted to the hospital, alleging that the nurses let him eat human faeces. The incident occurred at about 6pm on Wednesday.
The patient, Mr Trevor Khumalo (26) had been admitted to Ward B6 suffering from acute psychosis on 2 January. Due to his mental condition, Mr Khumalo would go to the ward’s toilets and drink water from the chamber.
Afterwards, he would take faeces floating in the chamber to the ward and eat them in full view of the nursing staff. Drama started when five heavily built women, who said they were related to Mr Khumalo, noticed the man coughing phlegm (isikhwehlela) with pus and called for assistance from the nurses.
They, however, ran out of patience after a doctor, who was supposed to attend to Mr Khumalo failed to turn up. After waiting for more than two hours, the women, who were sitting on benches in the Casualty Department, suddenly stood up and accused the hospital’s staff of negligence.
There was a heated exchange of words after which the group stormed the ward and took away Mr Khumalo. Security personnel manning the hospital seemed intimidated by the five and let them through without trying to restrain them.
“We would rather take our son home so that if he is going to die, he does so peacefully,” said Mrs Tambudzo Siwela, an aunt to Mr Khumalo. As the women were making allegations against the hospital to the news crew, a group of security officers approached and attempted to arrest the crew.
They were, however, out muscled by the women. After tempers had cooled down, another of Mr Khumalo’s relatives, Mrs Tazviziva Mugabe, said negligence at the hospital had reached a breaking point.
“Something really needs to be done here. When we came to visit in the afternoon, we found him (Mr Khumalo) sitting next to his bed eating human faeces, which were in a bucket.
“When we told the nurses what he was doing, they said there was nothing they could do as there was no cleaning staff to attend to the mess,” she said. The woman said they were contemplating taking Mr Khumalo to a private doctor. We are taking him home now and we will see what to do next.”
When a news crew visited House Number 2212 in Makokoba suburb, Mr Khumalo was said to have been taken to a city doctor. The hospital’s chief executive officer, Dr Lawrence Mantiziba, said he was in Harare on business and as such, he was unaware of the incident.
However, he said the family’s actions are criminal.
“When a patient is being discharged, there should be a release form signed by authorities and their next of kin and there is no other way a patient can be released without authority. What they did amounts to a criminal act,” said Dr Mantibiza.