PE woman still seeking ‘justice’ for her father

SPECIAL CARE: Colleen Linde looks after her father, Glen Griffiths, who after a fall in hospital has been left wheelchair-bound and requiring full-time care. Photo: MIKE HOLMES

AFTER waiting in vain for answers on how her father sustained a serious head injury while being treated in hospital, a Port Elizabeth businesswoman has become one of the first people to ask the newly appointed health ombudsman to intervene on her behalf.

And while Colleen Linde, 50, has received no answers from Netcare Greenacres Hospital, she did receive a letter from the institution’s attorneys telling her to stop phoning the company’s employees about the issue.

Linde’s father, Glen Griffiths, 83, was admitted to the hospital for routine pain management for his lower back at the beginning of December.

A day after his admission, nurses informed her that he had been found on the floor with a head injury so serious he had required surgery and had been left wheelchair bound, in nappies and dependent on a feeding tube.

Linde says she believes he fell out of bed. Hospital reports, state he climbed over the bed’s railings. He was found in a pool of urine. Linde said that because a side effect of his medication was drowsiness, she had specifically asked nurses to help her father when he wanted to go to the bathroom.

Molorana Molekoa, from the Office of Health Standards Compliance, confirmed they had received the complaint.

South Africa’s first health ombudsman, former University of KwaZuluNatal vice-chancellor Malegapuru Makgoba, will take up office on June 1.

However, the case is already being investigated.

In a letter written to Linde, officials said they would come back to her in 14 days.

Linde said nothing had been the same for her and her family since her father was injured.

“He is still being fed through a tube into his tummy and requires aroundthe-clock care,” she said.

“With the help of the physiotherapist he is getting stronger physically but still requires assistance when walking. “He shuffles with assistance. “We keep him alive with a nutritional feed which is given five times a day.

“Dad is living in the moment and does not remember anything that has happened before his injury.

“He constantly asks for my mom and we have to constantly explain that my mom passed away in 2011.

“Our family have had to make quite a few adjustments,” Linde said, adding she could no longer afford full-time caregivers and family members were now looking after him.

Adding to the pressure on her, she is also trying to keep his company going while he is indisposed.

“My two boys and my brother Brad have stepped in to help. I manage my dad’s company from his bedside, so to speak,” she said.

“For the past six months we have been living this nightmare. You never think that it could happen to your family.

“I think everyone of us would try every avenue we could to achieve justice, especially for our loved ones.

“This is an 83-year-old man who went into hospital for lower-back nerve-ending pain and came out three months later with brain damage.

“I contacted Netcare’s head office, Netcare Insurance and Liabilities in Cape Town, Netcare Greenacres Hospital, Netcare’s attorneys, the Hospital Association of SA, the Nursing Council of SA and the medical ombudsman to help us get justice for him.

“I started a Facebook page, Justice for Glenn Griffiths. “Netcare denied liability. I couldn’t leave it at that when the evidence, without a doubt, points to negligence resulting from a major shortage of staff.

“I am hoping I can get some financial assistance in caring for my dad and to raise public awareness of this particular incident, as it is alleged that this is not an isolated incident.”

Netcare communications manager Marietjie Shelly said they empathised with the “unenviable and challenging situation” in which Linde found herself.

“We can also appreciate that Ms Linde requires some form of certainty as to the way forward in terms of appropriate care for [her father].

“With regard to Ms Linde having direct contact with Netcare and hospital personnel, the parties are in a situation where Ms Linde has briefed an attorney and it is for the purposes of clarity and record that we wish to maintain communication via our respective attorneys.

“This is not meant to be obstructive or difficult,” Shelley said.

Linde said she had briefed an attorney initially, but had not had the money to pay him.

Late yesterday Netcare issued a statement via senior legal manager Annemie Greeff saying: “In order to ensure an independent assessment of the matter, Netcare sourced an independent clinical in-depth investigation into Mr Griffiths’s case. Netcare is now in receipt of the findings of this investigation.

“The independent clinical expert concluded that the medical condition from which Mr Griffiths is currently suffering is completely unrelated to any incident that might have happened during Mr Griffiths’s stay in hospital. Therefore, it follows that Ms Linde’s allegations regarding negligence by the hospital or its staff, are totally unsubstantiated.

“Furthermore it was concluded that Mr Griffiths’s current condition is entirely inherent to his medical condition with which he presented to the hospital in the first instance, and a classical presentation of processes related to this condition.”