The elderly woman who was pleading for help, in a widely shared video taken at Wentworth Hospital, has died.
Rowena Hawkey (69) is seen in the clip seemingly in extreme respiratory anguish, pleading for assistance. Patients are shown lying on the floor and hunched in chairs with no help being administered by medical staff.
Hawkey is shown shouting, "I can't breathe! Please get me out of here. Hello, hello. Please get this [indistinguishable]. I'm going to die like this. This tube here, please give it to me. I've asked everybody to help me... No one wants to help me. nobody. I can' t live like this," she cries.
The man filming it says, “It’s f*****g bullshit, I’m taping this and putting it on social media.”
Speaking to The Witness on Tuesday night, Hawkey's nephew Allon Pretorius said she died on the day the footage was taken, on January 6. He said the family only saw the video on the Monday after Hawkey's death.
"Last night I couldn't sleep after seeing that video. I sat awake for a long time because every time I closed my eyes I saw it.
"We are all very distressed about it," he said. He said the family was planning to have a private funeral in Durban and possibly video stream it for their loved ones in different parts of the world as one of Hawkey sisters is in England and the other in Port Elizabeth, while he is in Roodepoort and others are in Knysna.
"We can't travel because of Covid and everything." He said Hawkey lived with his family when was in high school so he grew very close to her.
The Department of health confirmed on Monday that the hospital shown in the clip was Wentworth.
“As a Department, we became aware of this video this past weekend and immediately dispatched a high-level delegation of managers from head office to establish the facts, and come up with an immediate resolution of the situation.”
The department said they had established that the patients in the clip were awaiting their Covid-19 results, also known as Patients Under Investigation (PUIs).
"On the day in question, the hospital had received a particularly high number of patients. Additionally, 11 doctors were away in isolation, after testing positive. A further 17 nursing staff were off, due to Covid-19. Six nurses were in charge of the Accidents and Emergency Unit, as well as a 28–bedded short stay ward with very sick patients.
They said the “delegation from head office has since assisted the hospital to ensure that patient flow is management properly”, through the following interventions:
· Making alterations at Wentworth Hospital’s Accidents and Emergency Unit, which has created space for more beds, which will help alleviate congestion;
· Sending recovering patients to Clairwood Hospital, which has ample space, while those who need oxygen are sent to isolation.
They said the availability of Covid-19 rapid tests will progressively reduce the time spent by patients who are awaiting their results.
“We have a serious and deadly pandemic on our hands, which is now of our own making.”
Dr Rishigen Viranna, DA’s KZN spokesperson on Health, said they were horrified by the video.
“While we understand that KZN’s healthcare system is extremely stretched, the conditions and lack of patient care are completely unacceptable, inhumane and possibly unconstitutional. Section 27 of the South African Constitution confirms the right to access proper health care.”