ANOTHER lawsuit is in the pipeline against the Gauteng department of health.

ANOTHER lawsuit is in the pipeline against the Gauteng department of health.

A Kagiso family has instituted legal action against the Leratong Hospital for medical negligence.

Betty Maponya claims her daughter - who was illiterate and had impaired hearing - was forced to sign a consent form acknowledging that she was to undergo an emergency operation. She died 24 hours after the operation in November last year.

Her family has demanded answers from the hospital but they were told she had died of natural causes.

They were not convinced of this and have since decided to investigate her death on their own.

Maponya's mother Betty said yesterday: "A case of negligence was opened against the hospital a week after my daughter died, but nothing has so far happened.

"It's been eight months since her death and the hospital refuses to release her medical record for us to pursue the matter legally.

"This increases my suspicions that I have a case and I'm denied closure on my daughter's death."

The deceased's mother has proof of correspondence to the Leratong Hospital director-general Mike Mpje.

Several attempts by Sowetan to get hold of Mpje yesterday failed.

Maponya said she had had a meeting with Mpje a week after her daughter died.

"The man simply had no words to explain anything properly to me," she said

"He speculated about Aids, which made me furious."