One of the country’s leading hospitals has been forced to give a patient a lifesaving treatment.
Inkosi Albert Luthuli in Durban denied 44-year-old Paul Coetser dialysis treatment last month because doctors claimed to have found traces of cannabis in his system.
Coetser suffers from an acute Kidney condition. He calls it a close call. He says after doctors denied him treatment they gave him three weeks to live. He was removed from a renal program after doctors accused him of using dagga.
Coetser does not deny this. He says he took it to ease the pain.
The hospital relented after Coetser’s lawyer threatened to take it to court.
“I had to go through a lot of steps. I went to the human rights, they couldn’t help me. I went to legal board and they gave me an attorney and he just made a few phone calls and it was done. They said I must come immediately for treatment.”
His lawyer says the hospital acted unconstitutionally.
Coetser’s lawyer Shaheen Seedat says: “I’ve been briefed by the legal aid board to bring a high court urgent application to allow this man urgent medical attention dialyses. Nobody deserves this type of treatment; whoever is ill needs to be attended to immediately. We can’t have people dying in our offices for nothing.”
Provincial health authorities have apologised.
KZN MEC for Health, Dr Sbongiseni Dhlomo, says: “The hospital had no right to turn the patient away whether they found traces of dagga or not.”
Dhlomo has promised an investigation into the matter.
WATCH RELATED VIDEO:
