Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
CEN/Azaad Ebrahim
The family of this man who died shortly after this video was made showing maggots wriggling in his mouth are suing hospital officials for over 560,000 GBP for negligence.
Sadick Ebrahim had suffered a stroke in 2014 that left him immobile and unable to speak.
In May last year he was admitted for a minor leg injury before being released and prescribed antibiotics from the RK Khan Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal Province, eastern South Africa.
A month later, the wound started to smell. “My mother came home from work to find his leg turned completely black and had become like jelly,” his son Azaad told local media.
The family then took Abdul back to the hospital where he had his leg amputated for reasons unknown. At the time, Azaad was told his father and his hygiene were being cared for.
Azaad assumed that the care included brushing his father’s teeth but he noticed his dad’s upper lip looked swollen.
When he took closer look he found scores of maggot crawling underneath.
Azaad said: “Maggots were crawling and so active and moving. I lost my mind. I screamed. I couldn’t believe that no one attended to him. The first thing anyone does in the morning is brush their teeth. They couldn’t even do that? Not even a guard came into the room. They just isolated my dad in the room because of the smell.”
He asked the nurses to wash his father’s mouth but his request allegedly went unanswered. As a result, he asked them for tissues and utensils to clean his father’s mouth himself.
Azaad said he suspected his father, 52, did not receive the due care he needed during his stay at the hospital and told Central European News (CEN) at the time that he planned to take legal action “so no other human shall suffer” in the same hospital.
The case has been filed in a Durban High Court by a lawyer for the man’s wife and son, Theasen Pillay, alleging negligence and recklessness by the RK Khan Hospital in Chatsworth, as well as provincial health Member of the Executive Council (MEC) Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu.
They are reportedly asking for 11 million ZAR (566,712 GBP).
It says: “The Plaintiffs claim that had the First Defendant (R K Khans Hospital) acted with proper diligence, care and professionalism expected from a medical institution the deceased would not have had required his limbs to be amputated nor would the deceased have had an infestation of maggots in his mouth.”
Ebrahim died on 3rd July shortly after the video was made and health officials have 30 days to reply.
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