Chenai asked me to share her story and in detail experience she had to indure during her stay in the involved State Hospital.. This could be very upsetting to some readers, thus decide if you want to read this. I felt the need to publish this to inform all of what our Heroes are going through in State hospitals. Chenai: I know your battle and daily trauma is far from over but we will give our support and help you how and where we can. Remember you are a survivor and by sharing this you give so much hope to those that are currently hopeless! You are a HERO! On the night of 30th of December while lighting up a paraffin stove, I sustained severe burns on the hands, torso and neck areas. I immediately ran for the shower to extinguish the flames. I applied burn shield from the house first aid kit before heading for Waterfall Hospital. They did the initial dressing to contain the spread of the heat. There they graded the burns a combination of 1st and 2nd degree. My husband had earlier lost his job in July 2012 and we were no longer on medical aid. As such we were referred to Chris Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto. An ambulance was arranged for us and we headed for Soweto. Upon arrival, we were informed that there were no rooms available in the Burns Unit and that even other patients from as far as Krugersdorp were being turned away. A 1 hour tussle ensued between the ambulance staff and the Waterfall Hospital staff as they did not know how to proceed from there. We even suggested going home and returning back tomorrow if there was no help available immediately. Eventually, space was found at Tembisa Hospital. We arrived there around 0150hrs. The ambulance left us in the casualty section. Finally a doctor came to attend, checking vitals and verifying the grading of the burns and extent. Admission eventually happened at 0515hrs. The doctor came in at 0930hrs. I believe I was still in shock as I did not feel any pain and I even asked to be discharged after dressing. The doctor then advised me that the burns were serious and I would risk death if I opted to go home at that stage. On day 3, I then began to feel the unbearable pain. The nurses would clean the wounds first before dressing. All patients are gathered in the hydrotherapy room at the same time. There is no privacy at all. I was in the female ward with 7 other burns patients all at different stages of healing and with burns of different nature and extend. The ward would be noisy from patients who were healing and this disrupted much needed rest and sleep. In those early days, I would cry from the pain and other patients would call me names such as cry-baby. The nurses did nothing to stop them. From the day of admission, the only medication which was given was 2 tablets of Panadol four times a day and a Pethidine injection which would be given after changing and wound dressing. We were cleaned and dressed on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The stretch from Monday to Thursday was the longest and the most unbearable as by Wednesdays, inevitably the bandages would have fallen off and consumed with discharge from the fresh wounds. The nurses would refuse to replace them. On one instance, my husband brought in a bandage as I was now uncovered and the nurses took exception to this. As a person, one would smell making even visits from friends and relatives uncomfortable – ironically at a time when one needs the most support. Dressing days were extremely painful for me. Even with the injection administered afterwards, the pain was excruciating. The cleaning of the wounds was done using Germguard -the exact same liquid used for washing hands. I will never forget these dressing days and would not wish for anyone to experience that pain. There is 1 bathroom in the Burns Ward which is not regularly cleaned and often very dirty. The food is unbearable and I had diarrhoea the first days. The same lady who does the cleaning is the same lady who distributes the food. During tea time, bread is handed with bare hands. Oftentimes the bread itself is stale. If any patient raises a complaint, they are told to wait for lunch. Most of the staff are not qualified nurses and it is unclear whether the qualified nurses ever received burns management training. During the first weeks, I was in so much pain that I could not even go to the toilet but I had to because there was no-one to help. So even my intake of fluids was low because I did not want to be frequently getting up to go to the toilet. Only those patients admitted to the high care unit were assisted by wheel chairs on toilet visits. The attending doctor did not tell me the degree of the burns or the extent. I had to check for myself in the file to realize that I had been burnt 35% with a mixture of what they called 1st and 2nd degree burns. The doctor came in on Mondays and Thursdays only and would glance at the wounds from a distance and then tell the nurse the course of action – typically to continue dressing and monitor the vitals. There was not time to discuss with the patients neither with spouses or close relatives. This created such anxiety and uncertainty. Visitors including spouses were disallowed from perusing the files – which created huge information gaps. On the 18th of January 2013, I went to theatre from the debriment procedure – almost 3 weeks after admission. It is through God’s grace that the wounds did not go septic. No medication was given after theatre and I was in immense pain. The nurses simply did not care. When the slough/debriment was removed there were areas that clearly needed skin grafting but the doctor kept procrastinating. Only when a senior doctor came through beginning of February did he point out the immediate need for skin grafting upon one look on areas that sustained 3rd degree burns. The skin grafting procedure was done on the 8th of February 2013 to the upper part of both arms and the right flank. After the grafting, I was not sedated or given any pain medication. Only antibiotics and Panadol (mild pain drug) were administered. This was very painful especially with another fresh wound on the donor site. I had to immediately start using the grafted arms as there was no help. I had to walk to the toilet even with a leg still in pain from the open donor wound. The donor sites themselves are not dressed during dressing days. I was told that the bandages are supposed to fall off by themselves – as a sign that the site has healed. For 2 weeks, the donor site on my leg was smelling and was not covered properly causing much discomfort. One of the auxiliary nurses even made fun of me when I indicated to her that my donor area was smelling and beginning to look septic. I cried until one of the professional nurses came to counsel me and explained that this was normal for donor sites until they dry. Most of the assistant nurses and even some professional were very insensitive. They would walk in the aisle of the ward imitating how we walked or ate instead of encouraging us to stretch and maintain posture. This was quite dehumanising. Physiotherapy was held on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. There is one physiotherapy room at Tembisa Hospital catering for all patients. This room is at least 200 metres from the Burns Ward and it was extremely painful having to walk over there. In some cases, most burns patients simply did not go there and such instances would be noted down in patient files. No wheel chairs were provided and the physiotherapist did not bother to come to the ward to conduct the therapy. There is one physiotherapist for the entire Burns ward and the physiotherapy is done as a group at the same time without regard for individual needs or different stages of healing. During the physiotherapy session, the therapist would only tell us that we need to exercise or we would end up crippled. Instead of doing the exercises, all he would do is talk. The sessions were very short and we would head back to the ward. On discharge, most burn patients were not advised of the sheer need for post-burn management particularly through physiotherapy. This is clearly one the areas that lacked the most at Tembisa Hospital. Most of the gowns provided for burns patients were torn and oftentimes we were not decently dressed. This made walking outside inhuman and embarrassing. The gowns themselves were changed after 4 or 5 days, at which stage they would have been soiled by the wounds. The bed sheets were only changed if they were badly soiled. Burns wounds smell a lot but no consideration was given to make an effort to change the bedding often enough. At times, we were told to spread our own beds in spite of the extreme pain we were under. The beds were very high and one had to use a stool to disembark or to get on the bed. I was discharged on the 21st of February 2013. Before leaving, I went to the physiotherapist because I wanted to be booked as an outpatient. He then referred me the Occupational therapist who simply looked at my wounds and said that nothing could be done at that stage because the wounds were still not healed. I went for dressings on two occasions as an outpatient. After each visit I would then proceed to the Occupational Therapy section and was told that my wounds were not ready as they were not healed. On the second visit, I showed the doctor (who happens to be the head of the burns unit at Tembisa) the scars that were starting to form on my chest and he just said that is what happens with burns. I further explained to him the intense pain I was experiencing and he prescribed Stopyne. He then referred me to the occupational therapist again. On arriving there, I was told the same story that my wounds had not healed and that I should in fact go back to medical. This was very frustrating. There I was with no knowledge of burns or scar management but being thrown back and forth between the very people who were supposed to be helping me. Having done our own research on post-burn management, we enquired about the use pressure garments and silicone gel sheets. We were told that the wounds were still not healed and hence the use of pressure garment would cause blisters and that silicone gel sheets were usually reserved for patients with facial burns. At that point, I then asked my husband to go to Milpark Hospital Burns Unit to find out more about post-burn management and what we could learn from them. He went to the burns unit and was well received by the sister-in-charge who explained the post-burn management typically employed at Milpark. She then handed him 3 business cards for doctors that work with patients after discharge from the Burns ward. My husband then randomly picked Dr Hel’s card and what a blessing that was. Thank you Dr Nel and Hero Burn Foundation for giving me reason to stay alive.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 08:13:19 +0000
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