A 25-year-old woman suffering from severe depression and admitted to Mount Darwin District Hospital disappeared from her ward on October 20 and was found at Concession, some 136km away, two days later unconscious and with her hands tied.
The hospital did not report the patient was missing to
relatives or the police until October 22; when the woman’s aunt heard the news
she rushed to Mt Darwin Police Station to make the initial missing person’s
report.
Wendy Chinomungu of Rushinga was found bruised while her
hands were tied with a rope at a farm in Concession. Her face was swollen. She
was rushed to Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare where she later died. Preliminary
checks showed the woman had been sexually assaulted.
Ms Chinomungu had a condition known as melancholia (severe
depression) and was admitted on September 30 to Mt Darwin Hospital. Owing to
the condition, she was initially unable to walk, bath and eat on her own. She
would be carried to the toilet and was experiencing recurring mood swings.
Despite having the family members’ contact details, the
hospital staff only informed the aunt two days after she vanished according to
the records.
The aunt, Ms Fariya Musandirire was the first to report to
the police while the hospital administrator followed up later.
Some farm workers in Concession found the woman lying
unconscious three days after she left the hospital and told the farm owner who
immediately reported the case to Glendale Police Station. She was rushed to
Concession Hospital and was immediately transferred to Parirenyatwa Hospital
where she later died.
A post-mortem report shows that the death was due to
“severe head trauma”. The pathologist said the death was not a result of
natural causes.
When The Herald visited Mt Darwin Hospital, it was clear
that the security at the institution was lax. On arrival at the hospital’s main
entrance, the security guard on duty did not bother to write down the visitors’
names and vehicle registration numbers. There were no temperature checks,
neither were there sanitisation in line with Covid-19 regulations. Cars would
get in and out without any searches.
The security fence is badly damaged and no longer serving
the intended purpose. In an interview, the hospital’s senior nursing officer Mr
Forbes Makamba confirmed the disappearance of Ms Chinomungu and also attributed
the incident to laxity.
“Yes I know of the incident. When it happened, I was in
Bindura attending a workshop,” he said. “She was admitted here on September 30
after she was brought in by her relatives. The relatives had a recommendation
letter from a Roman Catholic priest called Father Simoko.
“She had melancholia. She was easily irritable and
withdrawn. She could hardly walk, talk, bath herself and even eat on her own.
She could not do anything on her own.
“Her aunt wanted to stay here but I refused because we
wanted to examine her and try to establish what could have caused the
depression. We suspected the depression could be a result of some family
problems, hence we advised the relatives to stay away a bit and allow her to
recover.
“After a few days, we noticed some improvements on her
health. She was now able to walk and do her laundry. She was also able to eat,
but she still had challenges in walking,” Mr Makamba said.
“I informed the relatives that they could now visit Wendy.
The day they visited, that is when she had absconded from the hospital. I was
away.”
However, Mr Makamba insisted that the patient disappeared
on October 22, the day when the police report was made. But other staff said
she vanished two days before, when Mr Makamba was still away and the official
post-mortem and police documents show that she went missing on October 20.
Bureaucracy at the hospital also contributed to the delay
in reporting the missing patient’s case to the police.
“I was told that the nurse on duty that night noticed the
patient was missing and she informed the security department. The security
details were supposed to immediately report to the administration but they
waited until the following morning.
“That is when they informed the administrator who later
went to the police,” Mr Makamba said.Mr Makamba said an independent board of
inquiry had since been constituted to investigate the case.
Prior to the patient’s disappearance, some expensive juices
and other food would be seen on her table daily but no one knew the source.
The Herald tracked down Wendy’s uncle Mr Chikuya Chikuya,
who stays in Mudimu village under Chief Dotito, to get an account of what could
have transpired to their niece.
Ms Chinomungu was staying with Mr Chikuya, who is married
to Mrs Musandirire, prior to her hospitalisation. Mr Chikuya is a brother to
Wendy’s late mother.
In an interview, Mrs Musandirire said her niece disappeared
on October 20 and that the hospital officials were trying to cover-up for their
delay in making a police report. She confirmed all relatives were barred from
visiting Ms Chinomungu at the hospital.
“On October 15, we received a text message from Mr Makamba,
the matron, telling us that our niece’s health was improving. We asked if we
could visit her and he agreed. On that day, we failed to go due to transport
challenges.
“On October 22, in the morning, we received a text message
from the matron again, advising us to go to the hospital and see a nurse called
Karasa. Coincidentally, we were planning to visit our niece on that same day,”’
she said.
Mrs Musandirire did not find her niece in the women’s ward.
“At first I thought she had been moved to another bed. I then approached a
nurse who was in the ward and she referred me to the sister-in-charge, Mrs
Karasa. We sat down and she told me that my niece was missing from the hospital
from October 20. It was so unbelievable and I was hurt,” she said.
The nurse reportedly asked the aunt to personally go and
report the case to the police.
“She indicated to me that the hospital had not made a
police report for a missing person, some two days after her disappearance. She
asked me to go and report to the police that my niece was missing from
hospital. Is this how Government hospitals handle issues of this nature?
“At first I refused to go to the police, but I later
decided to comply. Police officers treated me well and asked me to bring my
niece’s photos to assist in the search. Later in the day, we heard she had been
found at Concession,” she said.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul
Nyathi confirmed the incident saying Chinomungu’s aunt was the one who reported
the case. Herald
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