DA reports second case of gangrenous negligence to SAHRC

by Andre Louw – DA Northern Cape Premier Candidate

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Date: 29 January 2019

Release: Immediate

Please click here for an Afrikaans soundbite and here for an English soundbite by the DA Northern Cape Premier Candidate, Andrew Louw.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape has referred a second case of severely neglected gangrene in the Namaqualand area, to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC). Click here for picture.

This comes after the tragic case of Johannes Goedeman, from Vaalwater, has come to light. This comes only a few weeks after the exposẻ of the case of Piet Rooi, who eventually had to have both legs amputated, after alleged mismanagement of his gangrene at the Joe Slovo Hospital in Garies.

Goedeman has been living with gangrene for five years. In all this time, Goedeman’s spreading gangrene was just treated with drips and tablets. Goedeman, who lives in unbearable pain with his rotten foot, has been sent home on numerous occasions by doctors at the Dr Van Niekerk Hospital in Springbok, who claimed that there was nothing they could do about the condition of his foot.

Finally, last year, Goedeman, who has been bedridden for approximately a year, and whose body is covered in bedsores, was eventually booked for an amputation to remove his gangrenous leg. Goedeman has an appointment for amputation early in February, as the doctor assigned to him is currently on leave.

Goedeman’s family cannot understand why he did not have his small toe removed back in 2013, when signs of gangrene first started to show. They further believe that if he had received better treatment from the word go, he might not have had to lose his leg and be robbed of his ability to perform day to day tasks.

Goedeman’s case has once again thrown the spotlight on highly understaffed and under resourced health care facilities in the Northern Cape, especially in Namaqualand. This is not a new issue but one that has been mushrooming under the failing ANC government. In effect, there has been a growing trend negligence at health facilities across the province.

It is unacceptable that healthcare in the rural areas of the province is treated with such nonchalance that people are paying for bad healthcare with their limbs and lives.

The DA will not sit back and watch how more and more people have to suffer under the leadership of the failing ANC. Only change under a DA-led government will ensure that hospitals are properly capacitated so that all medical cases can be treated with urgency and with the utmost care.