Provincial health authorities say they are investigating allegations that a nursing sister in Mbekweni, Paarl, refused treatment to a teenager with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis because she had missed her clinic appointment by three days.
The family of 15-year-old Joy Skrish allege that the teenager committed suicide last week following a confrontation with the Polar Park Clinic nurse.
Joy was a Grade 9 pupil at Hlumelo Junior Secondary School.
According to the family, when the teenager arrived at the clinic on Monday last week, the nurse got so angry with her that she threw her sputum into the rubbish bin, then threatened to disclose the girl's MDR-TB status to her school.
Joy had been supposed to deliver the sputum the previous Friday.
The family said the nurse also refused to give the girl her daily tablets.
Jo-Anne Otto, spokeswoman for the Department of Health in the Winelands region, denied that Skrish was refused treatment. She confirmed that the 15-year-old was an MDR patient.
She said the nurse was still working at the clinic and had not been suspended.
"The department and its personnel would not refuse to provide health care, treatment or medication to any member of the public requiring it.
"The allegations against the nurse are seen in a very serious light, however. She has not been suspended, but the matter is being investigated," Otto said, offering the department's condolences to the family.
Mbekweni police spokesman Captain Flip Linnert said police were investigating a case of suicide.
Meanwhile, the alleged incident has drawn heavy criticism from the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC).
TAC Western Cape co-ordinator Fredaline Booysen described the incident as "unfortunate", especially given the fact that it was happening during TB Month, designed to highlight the plight of patients battling the disease.
"The healthworkers are suppose to work together with TB patients and be there for them. Yet you've got healthworkers who have such a bad attitude that they drive their patients into situations where they end up killing themselves. That is so sad and unacceptable," she said.
Lulama Skrish, Joy's mother, said her daughter was so upset with the treatment she received from the nurse that she returned home in tears, and vowed never to return to the clinic.
Then, three days later, Skrish said she got a call from the nurse asking where her daughter was, and why she was no longer collecting her treatment.
"I then asked her why she threw Joy's sputum in the bin and refused her treatment? She told me she did so because she felt like it, and that it was because Joy had brought her sputum very late.
"She then told me that she would go to Joy's school and blacklist her from going to the school again by disclosing to everyone that she was an MDR patient, and she must not be allowed to be with other pupils as she would give them TB. She also told me that she would book Joy in a TB hospital very far away from us where we couldn't have access to her," she said.
Skrish then convinced her daughter to return to the clinic with a new sputum sample. But, again the girl returned home in tears.
"The only thing she told me this time was that she would rather not go back to school ever again than be treated badly by that nurse.
"She then went into one of the bedrooms and slammed the door behind her."
Her mother went to check on her later, only to find Joy dead. She had hanged herself with a rope in the bathroom.
The family of 15-year-old Joy Skrish allege that the teenager committed suicide last week following a confrontation with the Polar Park Clinic nurse.
Joy was a Grade 9 pupil at Hlumelo Junior Secondary School.
According to the family, when the teenager arrived at the clinic on Monday last week, the nurse got so angry with her that she threw her sputum into the rubbish bin, then threatened to disclose the girl's MDR-TB status to her school.
Joy had been supposed to deliver the sputum the previous Friday.
The family said the nurse also refused to give the girl her daily tablets.
Jo-Anne Otto, spokeswoman for the Department of Health in the Winelands region, denied that Skrish was refused treatment. She confirmed that the 15-year-old was an MDR patient.
She said the nurse was still working at the clinic and had not been suspended.
"The department and its personnel would not refuse to provide health care, treatment or medication to any member of the public requiring it.
"The allegations against the nurse are seen in a very serious light, however. She has not been suspended, but the matter is being investigated," Otto said, offering the department's condolences to the family.
Mbekweni police spokesman Captain Flip Linnert said police were investigating a case of suicide.
Meanwhile, the alleged incident has drawn heavy criticism from the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC).
TAC Western Cape co-ordinator Fredaline Booysen described the incident as "unfortunate", especially given the fact that it was happening during TB Month, designed to highlight the plight of patients battling the disease.
"The healthworkers are suppose to work together with TB patients and be there for them. Yet you've got healthworkers who have such a bad attitude that they drive their patients into situations where they end up killing themselves. That is so sad and unacceptable," she said.
Lulama Skrish, Joy's mother, said her daughter was so upset with the treatment she received from the nurse that she returned home in tears, and vowed never to return to the clinic.
Then, three days later, Skrish said she got a call from the nurse asking where her daughter was, and why she was no longer collecting her treatment.
"I then asked her why she threw Joy's sputum in the bin and refused her treatment? She told me she did so because she felt like it, and that it was because Joy had brought her sputum very late.
"She then told me that she would go to Joy's school and blacklist her from going to the school again by disclosing to everyone that she was an MDR patient, and she must not be allowed to be with other pupils as she would give them TB. She also told me that she would book Joy in a TB hospital very far away from us where we couldn't have access to her," she said.
Skrish then convinced her daughter to return to the clinic with a new sputum sample. But, again the girl returned home in tears.
"The only thing she told me this time was that she would rather not go back to school ever again than be treated badly by that nurse.
"She then went into one of the bedrooms and slammed the door behind her."
Her mother went to check on her later, only to find Joy dead. She had hanged herself with a rope in the bathroom.
- Cape Argus
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