Attempted murder at a Pretoria Hospital...

The following I had placed here as a temporary post so that it could be shared before it was accessible in the papers. And is the exact story that can now be found in the Sentinel at the following link pg 4-5:

http://sams.sh/images/sentinel/Sentinel_190228.pdf

St Helena Government seem to be doing very little about it, they have not said whether they have involved SAPS which very much should be - since this is a clear cut case of attempted murder for illegal organ harvesting. Whether it be for Muti (black magic) or to sell on as an underground operation, what is clear is that this chain of hospitals has been in trouble for it before. Albeit the branch in Durban. The hospital chain in question is Netcare (based in this case at Unitas Pretoria). This is South Africas largest private hospital chain, and also has clinics across the world. However, I cannot believe my Government would not have done the necessary background checks before hand, and if they did, how they can still send people to this hospital knowing what they do. If that isnt bad enough, since this story has come to light - St Helena Government are CONTINUING to send on patients to this very same hospital!!! Not only are they risking the lives of other Saints, but they are also, by not acting accordingly, risking the lives of thousands of others too, in SA using this hospital chain. This is a disgrace. I can only hope that the family involved take it on themselves, and take it up with the police. As although they may have a reputation for being useless - they cannot be expected to act on a case that they are not informed about.

Saint Speaks Out About Traumatic Experience at Pretoria Hospital

Brian Phillips (Markay) of Bottom Woods, like many Saints at some point in their lives, needed to be sent overseas for medical care. With a building aneurism threatening to end his life, he was rushed to Pretoria in January for an urgent operation at Netcare Unitas Hospital.

“I was glad to get my operation,” Brian said. “The doctor that tended to me, he is good.” This was Brian’s first time going overseas for medical care and, as SHG do not pay for a family member to travel with patients, he was going alone. His wife, children and grandchildren remained in St Helena.

The operation was a success and Brian began his road to recovery. He was doing physio to repair the muscles that had been cut in his stomach and was, according to his doctor, recovering extremely well.But on the third day after his operation, Brian claims that things turned sinister.

On day three, Brian says he was visited in his recovery ward by a “little woman with bushy hair and dark glasses” who appeared to work for the hospital. Brian described her as looking “evil.”The woman came to Brian’s bed, asking him about his operation and what he had had done to him.

The woman then said she needed to take a blood sample and that they were going to take his organs. “I pulled away, I said ‘what are you talking about, you’re not drawing any blood from me,’” Brian said. The woman then left and Brian told one of the hospital staff about the incident. A nurse was assigned to watch him. However, later that day the little woman returned. The nurse who was supposed to be watching Brian was nowhere to be found.

“She started poking at me and then shouted for another person,” Brian said. “They came in with strings and tied me down in the bed.”A few of Brian’s distant family members were at the same hospital visiting another patient, and one of them dropped by to see him. According to Brian, the family member begged for the two people to loosen the restraints but the pleas were ignored. This family member then brought Andrew Turner, SAMS the rest of the family round, but again all pleas were ignored.

After the family had left, the accomplice injected something into Brian’s IV drip to drug him, while the little woman proceeded to attempt to scare Brian by threatening to rip out his catheter and feeding tubes. “They started talking about burning me up and all kinds of things like that,” he said. Although he repeatedly shouted for help, nobody came.

Brian repeatedly struggled to free himself but was subjected to more pain for his efforts, with the little woman bending back his fingers.Brian was told that they would reopen his wound from the operation, in order to get to his organs. Brian said they had been tormenting him for hours when he hit his final straw.

Things got so bad that Brian could only see one way out. Even if he managed to escape, the Hospital felt as big as St Helena, he said. He was stuck in a strange city, with no family and nobody there to help him. Brian felt he had only one means of escape. “ I’m a long way from home, no one to help me,” Brian said. “So [I thought] rather than go through this, I’ll just take myself out. “[So] I said to her, ‘I know you’re out for killing me but you’re not going to kill me because I’d kill myself.’”

Brian managed to use two fingers to untie the strings that was holding one of his hands to the bed. He then grabbed a bottle of hand sanitizer that was in reach, and dispensed as much of it into his mouth as he could.

“One of them grabbed it out of my hand,” he said. “That was the only time I’ve ever tried to commit suicide... all for the sake of those people.”

The short woman then said to her accomplice that he was “no good” and “poisoned now.” “‘That meat is no good to eat now’ she said to me, ‘its poison,’” Brian said. “I don’t know what they were going to do to me. They said they wanted ‘clean meat.’”

Finally, after being given more drugs, Brian was unconscious and only woke up the next morning. According to Brian, no doctor visited him during the entire incident. The day after, he was moved to a different room and visited by someone he believed to be either a hospital security worker or a police officer. This person finally freed him.

“She was talking to me and was asking questions,” he said. “I could see this woman was really sorry for me. If it wasn’t for her I never would have been untied.”

While all this was going on, Brian’s wife had been trying to phone the hospital to speak to him but was repeatedly told that there was nobody by that name at the hospital. She told The Sentinel that even the next day, she had to speak to six different people before finally getting through to Brian. Brian told The Sentinel that the care he recieved at the hospital, except for on day three of recovery, was very good and that the doctors that handled his actual surgery were also very good. But he said his ‘day 3 experience’ affected him so greatly that he would go “anywhere else off the island” but he would not go back to that hospital. Brian is hoping that what happened to him will serve as a wake-up call to the Health Directorate and that SHG will do more to protect Saints travelling overseas for medical referrals. Brian also said that while Saints tend to ‘complain on the streets,’ they don’t tend to complain to the official channels. He hopes his speaking out will help us all be less frightened of speaking up. “Most probably this will help to push people to come forward when they go away and things don’t go right,” he said. “I can say that I almost lost my life out there. I was a long way from home and I had no one there who could help me, and we’ve still got more Saints going travelling overseas for medical referrals.

According to Brian, the Health Directorate is investigating the issue. The Sentinel contacted representatives from the Health Directorate for confirmation that Brian’s claims are being investigated. One rep. said they are awaiting results of a full investigation, while Dr Akeem Ali said “SAMS are advised to exercise caution in publishing the story because of the perceived impact on the public which could be undue anxiety when the events reported are still being investigated...” Brian had asked The Sentinel for help in voicing his story, as he believes the community has a right and reason to know what he said has happened.

The Sentinel also contacted Public Health Committee Chairman Councillor Derek Thomas, who refused to comment.