Family Traumatised after patient wrongly declared dead

28 September 2016  

A Meyerton family is angry and upset after being told that their daughter and sister was declared dead at the Kopanong Hospital in Vereeniging, but when they arrived to fetch the body they found that she was still alive.

Last week on Wednesday a policeman came to inform them that 26-year-old Tracy Palesa Hugo had died. She had been taken earlier in the week to the hospital after suffering a stroke.

They told family members across the country about her death, and posted it on Facebook.

On Monday this week, they came with an undertaker to remove the body, and then discovered that she was alive and being treated in a ward.

A nurse told them that Tracy's body had already been wrapped for removal after being declared dead, but then it was discovered she was still living. But other versions of what happened have been told to them, and they are confused about what really happened.

It seems that the police were called to inform the family of Tracy's supposed death because the hospital claims they did not have a phone number for the family, but the police were not informed later that Tracy had not actually died.

The Hugo family are immensely traumatized by what has happened and want to sue the hospital.

They suffered for five days grieving over Tracy's death when she was still alive.

This is inexcusable negligence by the hospital.

An inquiry must be held urgently into this distressing matter, and should make recommendations to ensure that nothing like this happens again in our hospitals.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, 28 September 2016