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MIX-UP LEAVES FAMILY HURTING

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Gogo Duduzile Mvelase at home with her niece, Nonhlanhla Myeni.                         Photo by Christopher Moagi
Gogo Duduzile Mvelase at home with her niece, Nonhlanhla Myeni. Photo by Christopher Moagi

GOGO Duduzile Mvelase says she won’t die without saying goodbye to her family.

Last month they received a call saying she’d died at Bheki Mlangeni Hospital in Soweto.

It later turned out patient files had been mixed up and the wrong family called.

“Sometimes I get so angry at what happened at the hospital,”

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Speaking to the SunTeam yesterday, the 61-year-old from Meadowlands said she was alive and well at home.

She said although she was healthy, her family had suffered a lot emotionally due to the mix-up.

She’d been told her grandchild cried uncontrollably after hearing she’d died.

She apparently started screaming: “Gogo, don’t leave me. Don’t leave me, gogo!”

Following the incident, the family met with hospital management and was offered Covid-19 testing as the gogo was suspected to be infected, as well as counselling for the trauma caused by the mistake.

Although tests were done, no one had been sent for counselling.

The hospital last month had told them the psychologist was off sick and they hadn’t heard anything since then.

Gogo Duduzile’s niece, Nonhlanhla Myeni, was traumatised.

“Sometimes I get so angry at what happened at the hospital,” she said.

“But we console ourselves with the fact that some families have been through worse.

“Some families have had loved ones cremated without their consent.”

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The gogo said she doubted counselling alone would take away the trauma.

“What happened at the hospital broke my heart,” she said.

However, she said, being with her family made her feel better.

“I feel at home and my family is supportive and giving me love,” said gogo.

“Physically I’m well. It’s just my eyesight that’s failing me.”

Gauteng health spokeswoman, Kwara Kekana, said extra support should be offered through counselling services from the facility.

“The delay is simply unacceptable. The facility could’ve found alternative avenues to provide services during the Covid-19 isolation through both the CEO and the psychologist,” she said.

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