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Probe under way at Durban hospital after patient found with maggots in his mouth

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This story contains graphic information that may upset sensitive people.

The KwaZulu-Natal Health Department says they are addressing staff shortages at hospitals in the province after a graphic video emerged, showing live maggots in a patient’s mouth at RK Khan Hospital in Chatsworth, south of Durban.

The family of 52-year old Saadick Ebrahim are demanding answers – claiming nurses did not help to remove the maggots, but instead asked that family members clean him.

In the video, Ebrahim’s son can be heard demanding answers from the nurses over his father’s condition.

RK Khan board member Cyril Pillay says the hospital is understaffed and over loaded.

KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu says they are investigating the incident.

“We’ve unleashed the Acting Head of Department to go and find out what led to the situation. The issue of staff shortages is affecting us adversely as a province. It is a matter that myself and the Premier are talking about and we are trying to get to the bottom of it to see how we can assist our institutions,” says Simelane-Zulu .

“My understanding – and it is what I have been talking to the nurses and doctors about – is that once you have a patient in front of you, that patient must be given your full attention at that particular point. It does not make sense that this is a patient that would get to this level. It is an indication that it had been there for a while and had been ignored,” she says.

 

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