Hospital to blame for suicide, psychiatrists say

MARANYANE NGWANAAMOTHO
Staff Writer | Tuesday August 24, 2010 00:00

They say that it is even 'very irresponsible for the superintendent, who is a doctor himself, to utter such chilling words.' 

The psychiatrists said hospitals have a responsibility to care for the vulnerable, which Marina Hospital failed to do in this particular case.  'Every doctor's code of ethics emphasises a duty of utmost care of a patient!' said a psychiatric who preferred anonymity.

He said that postnatal depression is a severe form of depression, and that the hospital staff should have known better than to leave the patient unattended. 

He says that the fact that the nurses were aware of the suicide note left by the patient to her sisters asking them to take care of her child, makes the superintendent's remarks most 'embarrassing'. 'The patient would not have absconded and executed her plans for the suicide had they performed a risk assessment immediately,' he said.  

He further condemned the nurses who told Mojuta's sisters that she would be referred to social workers after they were informed about the message, which was never done anyway.  'Where on earth have social workers managed severe forms of depression with imminent suicidality? Is that not deviance from established standards of care?

Has the deviance not caused the damage or death as in this case? Wouldn't anyone deduce that the deviance had a direct causation to the damage or death as in this case?' he asked.

Keabonye Mojuta committed suicide early this year by hanging herself from a tree at Gaborone Secondary School sports grounds after absconding from Princess Marina Hospital where she was a patient.  She was suspected of suffering from post-partum depression and had sent a 'suicidal note' to her sisters, asking them to take care of her newborn baby.   Even though the sisters went to the hospital to seek the meaning of her message, and informed the nurses about it, no action was taken to ensure that she did not kill herself. 

The day that the two sisters went to see her, it took them awhile to locate her even though the nurses were assisting them.  They ultimately found her crouching, almost cowering, in a corner and had not gone to feed her baby. A nurse counselled Keabonye and promised her sisters that she would be referred to social workers, which never happened. She then absconded and hung herself from a tree at Gaborone Secondary School sports ground, not far from the hospital.  The hospital management only got to know after police informed them that their patient was found hanging from a tree at GSS grounds.