For weeks, the family of 15-year-old Nande Mdingi says they have lived through every caregiver’s nightmare, watching a vulnerable child’s condition deteriorate while desperately searching for answers inside one of Gauteng’s most embattled public hospitals.
Admitted to Tembisa Provincial Tertiary Hospital on March 31 Nande, who has a compromised immune system, should have been on a path toward recovery. Instead, his family alleges his hospital stay became a traumatic ordeal marked by uncertainty, delays and mounting fear as his condition worsened over weeks.
Earlier this week, the Saturday Star received an urgent plea from Trysie Capel, a close family friend, who described a family pushed to the brink as they watched Nande fight for his life.
“I am on my way to the hospital to go and see what is happening at Tembisa Hospital. Nande has been in ICU for over a month now. The doctors haven’t come to the party. They haven’t told me exactly what his problem is, and because of that, nothing has improved. If anything, things are getting worse.
“Today, he is really not well. He is really not well, and I’m hoping, please, that if you could do anything, just anything, to try and see if we can get him the help he needs.
