‘Rescue me from SKMTH death dungeon’

Covid-19 patient’s last message to wife

The chilling details of a Covid-19 patient’s dying wish as he lay helplessly on his deathbed in Sir Ketumile Teaching Hospital (SKMTH) have emerged in an explosive interview with his wife.

The 28-year-old pastor succumbed to Coronavirus on 27 January, a week after being admitted to SKMTH.

Describing her husband as a fit, healthy young father with no underlying health issues, the troubled lady told The Voice her hubby was desperate to get out of SKMTH as the staff were effectively killing people through their negligence.

“He felt like if he goes to Sedilega he would recover. He said, ‘I feel like I will be the next one to die because they are killing people.’ He wanted to get out of that hospital!”

Requesting anonymity to protect the identity of her husband’s church, the woman invited The Voice to her Gaborone home where she narrated her tale of woe.

“I talked to my husband at around 8am on the day he passed on. I arrived at the hospital sometime around lunch but was only notified of his death, which was said to have happened at 9am, after a four-hour wait at the hospital.”

She explained that her husband was initially hospitalised at a private institution in the capital city before being transferred to SKMTH.

“He was admitted at the high care unit so I was surprised when he wasn’t taken to the same at Sir Ketumile (SKMTH). But I did not think too much into it since I knew the doctors knew what they were doing,” the widow continued.

He complained that doctors took long to attend to patients and that, despite being weak, patients were left to walk to the bathrooms unattended, she said.

According to the widow, who has the text messages to back up her claims, her husband told her that five days into his stay at the hospital he was yet to receive a bath.

“My husband is someone who on a normal day would bath up to three times a day. He told me that he went for five days without taking a bath because no one was there to assist him. This made him even more frustrated and lose focus on getting better.”

Desperate to feel clean, the ailing man tried to bath himself but the effort of leaving his bed proved a blow to his health.

“At one time he told me that he took off his oxygen mask and dragged himself to the bathroom. He said that when he returned that is when he got worse. He said he must have pushed himself too far.”

Pressed further on what exactly her husband meant when he said the hospital ‘were killing people’, she responded, “He did not give me much clarity because talking to him was difficult as he was gasping for air most of the time.”

“Most of the time we were communicating through video call but you could tell that he wanted to share more.”

Buried on Sunday 31 January, there was one more shock in store for the grieving wife.

“Another thing that surprised me is that on the day of his burial he was bleeding from the mouth. The blood was fresh but on the day when I went to Sir Ketumile he did not have blood only saliva.”

As the interview concludes, she tells The Voice that of she had the funds she would resort to legal action to find out exactly what happened to her husband.

Meanwhile, the hospital had not responded to The Voice’s queries about alleged negligence of patients, even though a questionnaire was sent to them last week.