Hospital 'refuses' to release body of man pending results

The family of Anele Mxhosana do not understand why Komga Hospital in the Eastern Cape is refusing to release his body, two weeks after his death.

But apparently, the 26-year-old's body has been kept because his Covid-19 test
results are still outstanding, 25 days after he took the tests.

The department of health said there was nothing untoward about the wait as there was a backlog of Covid-19 test results from its Port Elizabeth laboratory, the only one for the province.

Health department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said patients dying while waiting for results was not an isolated case of the Mxhosana family but is widespread across the province. He said he knew of several cases, but that the families in question had resorted to burying their loved ones.

Mxhosana died at Komga Hospital on May 25, two weeks after he was admitted, and his mother, Notiti Mxhosana, said he was supposed to have been buried at the weekend.

Mxhosana went to the hospital for a health complication unrelated to Covid-19. He was diagnosed with TB.

However, given his "high-risk" status, he was also tested for Covid-19.

Because Mxhosana was admitted at Komga Hospital, which had officially been used as a quarantine site for Covid-19 patients only, Notiti and her family could not visit him.

When they did, they would relay messages to him through the hospital's security guard. According to Notiti, if the family insists on burying him, they will not be able to view his body during the funeral.

"There is no progress. We went to the hospital's matron but she said she knows nothing and the doctor would know. I am very hurt because I don't know what else to do. It is very sad," she said.

"What is happening is painful to endure as a mourning parent."

The area's ward councillor, Weaver Sinqana, said he had advised the family to wait a little longer.

Kupelo said that a patient who died as a person under investigation (PUI), and where the results were still awaited, should be buried as a Covid-19- positive deceased.

He said this would be explained to the family today.

"When you are advised to bury the patient as a Covid-19 [deceased], do that because there is a clinical benefit for that. We are not going to be negligent as a department and keep quiet when there is a suspicion of Covid-19.

"The entire environment of the area can be contaminated; the groundwater can be contaminated.

"Let's not stigmatise Covid-19... on the death certificate it will say natural death."

Kupelo said law enforcement agencies could be
involved to monitor the service when Mxhosana is buried to ensure lockdown regulations are adhered to.