Investigation confirms patient's death due to load shedding
Health minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, has confirmed a power failure at the Letaba Hospital in Limpopo led to the death of a patient in ICU.
One of the hospital's generators failed to kick in after it ran out of diesel - leaving some parts of the hospital without power during load shedding.
Motsoaledi on Tuesday released the findings and recommendations of an investigation launched following the death in June.
He says the patient died while being moved to the operating theatre, where there was power.
"The power failure is the reason for the patient being tipped early into inevitable death. When the electricity switched off, she could not breathe without the ventilator and there was no time to take her to theatre."
The investigation also found that a second patient, who died a day later, did not die as a result of the power outage.
The findings also revealed allegations by the DA to be untrue.
The DA alleged a third patient had died at the Limpopo hospital as a result of the power outage.
Motsoaledi has now given the DA 48 hours to react to the findings.
"The third patient was admitted under a different name at another hospital as well at Letaba. If the DA is honest about cases of fraud, they must go and report the man who reported himself to be a relative of the patient," Motsoaledi said.
File photo: Gallo Images