The family of a Langa woman is blaming the local clinic for the demise of their daughter last October.
In an interview with City Vision at her home in Zone 18, Novoti Dywili, grief-stricken mother of the late Anazo Dywili, said nearly four months after her daughter’s death she is still in the dark about its actual cause.
The 20-year-old died on Tuesday 19 October at Somerset Hospital, after being transferred from the Vanguard Community Health Centre with a swollen backside.
Dywili said the family was still awaiting answers from the Langa Clinic. She claimed doctors at Vanguard confirmed she was given the wrong injection when she had gone for her dose of contraception in Langa.
“It was on Tuesday 28 September 2021 that Anazo, together with her friend, went to the Langa Clinic for contraception,” she said. “A few days later they both had swellings on their bums. I instructed her to go to the clinic again to inform the nurses.”
Anazo was given packets of tablets. But these did not seem to help as the backside continued swelling.
Dywili said she used to bath her daughter in warm water as the “bum got bigger and turned dark”.
“Anazo started to lose her appetite and consciousness,” she tearfully related.
“And the right bum was getting bigger and bigger each day. On Sunday 17 October I took her to Vanguard Clinic in Bonteheuwel and she was not speaking.”
On their arrival at Vanguard the doctor immediately attended to her, Dywili said. “The doctor told us Anazo was injected with a poison.” The stricken young woman she was rushed to Somerset Hospital.
The following day, Monday 18 October, the family received a call from a doctor there advising that they planned to carry out an operation to “drain the poison from her bum.
“On Tuesday 19 October, in the morning, we received another call informing us Anazo had died. I was shocked because I thought she would recover. I cried a lot because I didn’t think my child could be killed by an injection for a contraception.”
Since then the family has been seeking answers for the death.
On Tuesday 26 October, Dywili said, family members visited Langa clinic to find out what had happened to Anazo.
She said they met the “facility manager” and informed her of their quest for answers.
According to Novoti, she undertook to inform her superiors and get back to the family “quickly”.
Almost four months later, the family is still waiting for answers and to have a closure on the matter.
Patricia van der Ross, the City of Cape Town’s Mayco Member for Community Services and Health, said due to patient confidentiality her sector was unable to provide answers about the deceased’s visit to the clinic without the written consent from the family.
“The clinic manager has tried numerous times to get hold of the family, but they have left the province,” Van der Ross said. “The manager will make contact with them as soon as they return.”
Dywili confirmed she received a call from Langa Clinic on Wednesday 9 February, five days after she had arrived in Eastern Cape.
“I left Cape Town on Thursday the 3rd, in the evening, and arrived here on Friday 4 February,” she said. “I received a call from one of the nurses at Langa clinic telling me if I wanted to know anything about my child’s death I must go to the Civic Centre. And the nurse told me if they [the Civic Centre] gave me a form or if there is anything I don’t understand I must come to them [Langa Clinic].”
At the time of writing, Dywili had returned to the Eastern Cape, and the City had clearly done a follow-up after City Vision had sent a media enquiry through about the death and circumstances surrounding it on Friday 4 February.
