Ongwediva
A 46-year-old man endured 19 hours of torment while he waited for a doctor to attend to him at the Outapi District between Thursday evening and late last Friday afternoon after a piece of meat got stuck in his throat.
Iitembu said the chunk of meat was only removed 19 hours later when he was transferred to the Oshakati Intermediate Hospital where he was rushed to the theatre and the piece of meat piece eventually removed at 16h30 last Friday.
Upon arrival at the hospital last Thursday the nurses on duty put him on a bed and informed him a doctor would only be able to attend to him the following day.
He said from the time he was put on the bed no nurse came to his bedside to attend to him until Friday morning when a cleaner appeared to clean the room. “The nurse’s on duty just wrote in my health passport that a doctor would attend to me the next day,” narrated Iitembu.
The doctor arrived to attend to him after lunch on Friday. “It was so painful. I couldn’t even swallow water. I kept spitting saliva until I eventually started spitting blood,” related an anguished Iitembu.
Iitembu says he ate the piece of meat at around 20h00 last Thursday night and he got the shock of his life when the piece of meat got stuck in his throat.
Narrating his ordeal, Iitembu said he was dissatisfied with the treatment he received at the hospital, claiming the nurses did not take his condition seriously.
“When the doctor transferred me to Oshakati, some nurses mocked my condition, just because they could not see the piece of meat in my neck they repeatedly said there was nothing in my throat,” related Iitembu.
The family expressed dissatisfaction with the treatment, calling health officials to treat emergency cases as such.
Acting Omusati regional health director Robert Nandjila could not be reached be reached for comment.