Community
ARE WE PATIENTS — OR ARE WE DOGS?
Bruises, tears and unanswered questions: another elderly patient leaves Pelonomi, and once again the public is left asking who is protecting the vulnerable?
She went to Pelonomi Hospital because she could not breathe properly.
She went because she was weak.
She went because she had chest pain.
She went because she needed medical care.
She went because she trusted that a public hospital, funded by taxpayers and staffed by people entrusted with the care of the sick, would protect her when she was at her most vulnerable.
Instead, her daughter says, she came home traumatised — and with bruises covering parts of her body.
The photographs supplied to NovaSpeak show multiple visible areas of purple and reddish discolouration and bruising on the elderly woman’s arms and legs, as well as marks around her upper body. The photographs alone cannot establish how the injuries occurred or who caused them, but the family says the marks appeared after the woman’s alleged encounter with hospital staff at Pelonomi on 19 September 2026.
And that is where this story becomes much bigger than one mother.
It becomes a question about Pelonomi Hospital.
It becomes a question about patient dignity.
It becomes a question about accountability.
And ultimately, it becomes a question that should make every South African uncomfortable:
Are we patients — or are we dogs?
The woman’s daughter says she and her father rushed their mother to Pelonomi’s casualty department that morning because she is a cardiac patient, was extremely weak, could barely walk and was experiencing chest pain. They pushed her into the hospital in a wheelchair and helped her onto a bed.
According to the daughter, while she was explaining her mother’s medical history to a doctor, a nurse allegedly stood nearby making remarks such as “iyoh”, “hee” and “tjo”, while the elderly woman lay on the bed mumbling that she could not breathe.
The family says they noticed the remarks but initially did not confront the nurse. They were eventually instructed to wait outside.
The daughter says she later received a call from a doctor informing her that her mother wanted to be discharged.
When she returned to Pelonomi at around 13:30, she says she found her mother crying.
Not simply crying because she wanted to go home.
According to her daughter, the elderly woman appeared frightened and traumatised.
“Mommy, what’s wrong?” she asked.
The answer, according to the daughter, was that hospital staff had allegedly used force against her after she refused to have a catheter inserted and said she wanted to leave.
The daughter alleges that her mother told her that a senior nurse grabbed her around the chest while she was lying down and that the nurse subsequently slapped her in the face. The family further alleges that force was used against the elderly woman because she resisted.
And then there are the bruises.
The photographs provided to NovaSpeak show multiple marks on the woman’s limbs. Some are dark purple, others reddish, with several appearing in clusters.
NovaSpeak cannot determine from photographs alone whether these marks were caused by restraint, impact, medication, an underlying medical condition or another cause. That requires a medical assessment and investigation.
But they are visible.
And they form part of the evidence the family says must be investigated. The daughter says she later confronted the nurse whom she believed had been making the remarks earlier that morning and recorded a short clip. According to her, when her mother saw the nurse, she identified her as one of the people involved.
The daughter says the nurse allegedly repeated the same “iyoh” remark.
Same voice.
Same expression.
Same woman, according to the family.
The daughter further alleges that the senior nurse demonstrated how force had allegedly been used against her mother and said the patient had been resisting and kicking.
For the daughter, that demonstration raised an even more frightening question: what happened to her mother when her family was not there?
Another dispute now sits at the centre of the family’s account — whether the elderly woman was “confused”.
The daughter says one of the doctors attempted to convince her that her mother was confused and should remain at the hospital for observation.
But the daughter says her mother was able to confirm her name, surname and date of birth and sign the discharge documentation.
That does not, by itself, prove that she had full decision-making capacity. A patient’s capacity is a clinical matter that must be properly assessed and documented.
But neither should the word “confused” simply become the end of the conversation when an elderly patient says she wants to leave or refuses a procedure.
The daughter says another doctor who was allegedly present denied being there, while she alleges that the same doctor had attempted to intervene and told her mother to listen to the nurses.
She says she was not prepared to leave her mother behind.
And who can blame a daughter for wanting to take her vulnerable mother away when she says her mother had told her she had been hurt?
According to the daughter, another doctor appeared concerned about the situation and encouraged her not to leave the matter there.
The mother was eventually taken home.
But the story did not end there.
The bruises came home.
The fear came home.
The questions came home.
And so did the trauma.
This is not the first time Pelonomi has been the subject of serious concerns. In 2022, the South African Human Rights Commission conducted an oversight visit to Pelonomi after complaints had reached its Free State provincial office concerning the state of healthcare institutions and the quality of services being provided.
During that period, the SAHRC reported concerns around Pelonomi’s infrastructure and staffing. The Commission also reported that patients had previously protested after experiencing long waits for operations, while the hospital was dealing with high demand for orthopaedic services.
The concerns did not disappear, in 2025, following an inspection prompted by complaints about healthcare conditions and service delivery at Pelonomi, the SAHRC identified what it described as serious human-rights concerns, including overcrowding, inadequate infrastructure, critical staff shortages and inadequate mental-health facilities. The Commission said it would continue monitoring the hospital.
So when another family comes forward alleging that an elderly patient was humiliated, allegedly assaulted and left traumatised, NovaSpeak has to ask:
How many times must families complain before somebody actually listens? Because the latest allegation is not the only story circulating about elderly patients at Pelonomi.
NovaSpeak has also been told of another elderly patient awaiting hip, leg and arm surgery who was allegedly left for prolonged periods without adequate assistance, despite being unable to care for herself.
According to the account provided to NovaSpeak, the patient allegedly lay in her own urine and faeces and repeatedly pleaded with nurses to clean her because she could not do it herself. She allegedly had to wear nappies because she could not independently use the bathroom, but according to the account, even when the nappy became soiled, she could allegedly remain in it for hours, sometimes waiting for her daughter or other family members to arrive and clean and change her.
Think about that for a moment.
An elderly person.
In hospital.
Waiting for surgery.
Unable to properly move.
Unable to clean herself.
Begging the people responsible for her care to simply help her clean herself and allegedly having to wait for her family to arrive before she could receive that basic dignity.
Again, NovaSpeak has not independently established every detail of that account, and the hospital must be given an opportunity to respond, but if even part of it is true, the question is not whether the patient received a sophisticated medical procedure, the question is whether somebody simply helped her when she needed help.
That is the most basic level of human care.
And yet, these are the stories that keep bringing us back to Pelonomi.
Infrastructure problems.
Staff shortages.
Long waits.
Patients complaining.
Families becoming caregivers inside the hospital because they allegedly feel nobody else is doing it.
And now an elderly cardiac patient who says she was allegedly subjected to force after saying she wanted to go home.
Where is the accountability?
The Free State Department of Health publicly says its mission is to provide quality, accessible and comprehensive healthcare services and to use resources to provide caring and compassionate services. Its own Office of the Health Ombudsperson exists specifically to provide the public with a means of complaining about health services and says it independently and impartially responds to health-service providers and community complaints. The national Office of the Health Ombud also lists inappropriate treatment or care, inappropriate behaviour by healthcare facilities, poor-quality healthcare services and unsatisfactory handling of complaints among matters that can be reported.
So the mechanisms exist.
The policies exist.
The oversight structures exist.
The question is:
Where is the accountability?
Because a complaints system that merely receives complaints but does not produce visible consequences will eventually lose the confidence of the people it is supposed to protect.
NovaSpeak is seeking answers from the Free State Department of Health and Pelonomi Hospital regarding the latest allegations, including whether the patient’s injuries were medically assessed, whether force was used, whether any restraint was authorised and documented, whether the alleged slapping was investigated, whether the patient’s decision-making capacity was formally assessed, whether the proposed catheter procedure was explained and consented to, and whether the conduct of the healthcare workers involved is being investigated.
NovaSpeak also wants answers about the wider complaints raised by patients and families.
How many complaints involving Pelonomi have been received?
How many have resulted in formal investigations?
How many resulted in disciplinary action?
How many were dismissed, and on what grounds?
What independent monitoring is currently taking place at Pelonomi?
And perhaps the question the public deserves answered most:
What has actually changed?
Because the SAHRC has already documented serious concerns at Pelonomi. It has already conducted inspections. It has already recorded complaints. It has already raised issues around infrastructure, staffing and patient conditions, yet years later, families are still coming forward and that is why NovaSpeak refuses to treat this latest case as just another hospital complaint.
It is about the elderly woman in the photograph.
It is about the bruises on her body.
It is about the daughter who says she arrived expecting to collect her sick mother and instead found a woman crying and asking to go home.
It is about the other elderly patient allegedly left in soiled nappies, waiting for family members to perform the basic care she was unable to provide for herself.
It is about every patient who has ever pressed a call button and waited.
Every person who has begged for help.
Every family member who has sat beside a hospital bed wondering whether somebody is actually watching over their loved one and it is about the terrifying possibility that people may become so accustomed to poor treatment that they stop expecting better.
That cannot be normal.
A public hospital is not a prison.
A patient is not an inconvenience.
An elderly woman is not a nuisance because she refuses a procedure.
A person in pain is not “faking” simply because someone believes they are.
And being confused, frightened, elderly or difficult does not strip a human being of their dignity.
There may be circumstances where medical professionals are legally and clinically justified in using restraint or preventing a discharge. But those actions must be properly justified, proportionate, documented and subject to accountability. Anything less demands scrutiny, because when a patient walks into a hospital needing care and walks out allegedly carrying bruises and trauma, the public deserves to know what happened.
And when the same institution has faced documented scrutiny before, the answer cannot simply be:
“It is another isolated incident.”
Perhaps it is.
Perhaps it isn’t.
That is exactly what an investigation is supposed to establish.
Until then, these photographs remain a powerful reminder of why the questions cannot be buried.
The marks on this woman’s body may fade.
Her fear may eventually ease.
But if nothing is done, the next family could be asking the same questions.
The next elderly patient could be lying helplessly in a hospital bed.
The next daughter could be standing outside a casualty department wondering what is happening to her mother.
The next patient could be asking for nothing more than what every human being deserves:
Help.
Respect.
Dignity.
So NovaSpeak asks the Free State Department of Health, Pelonomi Hospital and those responsible for oversight:
How many more patients must suffer before accountability becomes more than a promise?
Because when an elderly woman enters a hospital unable to defend herself, she should not have to wonder whether she will be treated with dignity.
She should know and looking at these photographs, NovaSpeak is left with one question that refuses to go away:
ARE WE PATIENTS — OR ARE WE DOGS?
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