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Mozambique: Patient allegedly tortured at Infulene Psychiatric Hospital, Maputo – O País
3:04 CAT | 15 Jan 2021
Photo: O País
- “He says that two male nurses beat him. One of them covered his head with a bag and poured water on him and he lost consciousness. When he woke up, he no longer had any clothes on, which means that, after the assault, they gave him an injection and left him sprawled there”.
A patient at the Infulene Psychiatric Hospital in Maputo city has allegedly been beaten by staff working there, O País reports today.
The young man was allegedly beaten for supposedly refusing to take his medication, and his parents are demanding that the two employees accused of the offence, who are currently suspended from work pending the outcome of an investigation, are held accountable.
The patient, Jossias Matlombe, suffered a black eye as well as scratches on his ears and elsewhere on his body from the assault allegedly inflicted by those entrusted with restoring his mental health.
The incident occurred on the night of January 11, the first and only night he spent in the hospital. His sister, Lénia Matlombe, discovered the abuse when she visited the following day.
Lénia told ‘O País’ that there had been an attempt to bar her visit.
“When they brought my brother in, I was shocked. He had a puffy face and one black eye. I burst into tears at the sight,” she said.
Shocked and incapable of conceiving what might have led to such violence against a human being, Lénia Matlombe asked her brother who was responsible, and why. The young man replied that he was beaten by two employees of the very hospital where he was seeking treatment.
Other marks of the beating emerged. What took place at Infulene as to the young man’s healthwas the very opposite of what the family expected when they hospitalised him.
The patient “started to have crises associated with the pain he was feeling, because he was badly beaten”, and Lénia immediately called her mother to report what she had witnessed.
Upon hearing the news, the mother left the house at speed and arrived at Infulene Psychiatric Hospital to set the record straight, O País reports.
Her presence there caused the head of nursing to summon the nurse named in order to established what happened, and it was alleged that the patient had not only refused medication, but had allegedly tried to bite the nurse.
In order to defend himself, the nurse said, he moved away from the patient, who fell, crashing into the bed, the victim’s sister reports.
But this argument, however well elaborated, did not convince those who had met the victim or seen the room where he was hospitalised with other patients.
In fact, Jossias told his sister there were no beds in the room in question. “It is an open space where all the patients, of both serious and moderate condition, are placed,” she said.
“There are only mattresses there, so if he fell and hit ‘the bed’, he would not be ‘seriously injured’, she reasons. “That was slapping – they beat him,” she says.
“He says that two male nurses beat him. One of them covered his head with a bag and poured water on him and he lost consciousness. When he woke up, he no longer had any clothes on, which means that, after the assault, they gave him an injection and left him sprawled there,” Lenia reported.
No one knew what had happened on the night in question, not the patient’s family members, nor even the hospital management. The matter only surfaced the next day.
The health unit has apologised for what it calls a ‘work incident’.
“We do not accept these excuses,” says Bernadete Matlombe, another sister of the injured man. “Will these words heal the wounds they left on our brother? We took him to the hospital to be healed, not assaulted. The behaviour of these nurses saddens us immensely.”
Following the episode, the family is taking care of Jossias at home, for fear of returning him to the hospital and seeing the episode repeated.
“We don’t have the stomach to leave someone in a hospital to be treated in such a manner. It is not what we expect. We have been given a prescription and we will continue to medicate our brother at home,” Bernadete revealed.
Although the 20-year-old will not be returning to Infulene Psychiatric Hospital, for fear of further mistreatment, Jossias’ parents want to hold the hospital and its employees accountable.
“I want to file a criminal case, because I am very shocked. If I take my son to the hospital it is for him to be treated. Even if he did something bad, he should expect to be helped by health workers,” Jossias’ mother Leia Zacarias points out.
“It is inconceivable that they torture a sick person, beat him, tie him up with a sheet and pour water on him until he passes out. Where are we? I demand justice,” she adds.
Criminal and civil liability of hospital workers and of hospitals
The management of Infulene Psychiatric Hospital has confirmed the broad facts of an assault on a 20-year-old male inpatient and says it has suspended the two employees involved in the case.
“A commission of inquiry and the City of Maputo Health Services Inspectorate are already working on the matter. We have plenty of investigative resources and will, very quickly, reach a conclusion, which I believe that the media will report,” hospital director Serena Chachuaio said.
If convicted, the two employees may face sentences ranging from eight to 12 years in prison.
Lawyer Rodrigo Rocha outlines the legal perspective.
“Obviously, individuals [in similar cases] are brought to court to be held criminally accountable for physical injuries inflicted on a patient, and their [case] will be aggravated, because these are people who have a special duty of care – to care for and not to inflict bodily harm on the individual concerned.”
Rocha says that Mozambican legislation allows for the hospital also to be held accountable.
“It is possible, in terms of civil liability, to sue the hospital. The mechanism is foreseen in the Civil Code,” he says.
Even though the hospital has refused to reveal the names of the alleged aggressors, Rocha says that the parents of the patient assaulted may file a criminal case against the technicians as ‘persons unknown’ in which case the Infulene Psychiatric Hospital, if it persists in its behaviour, risks being cited as an accessory to criminal activity.
The Order of Nurses of Mozambique says is not yet aware of the occurrence allegedly involving a nurse at Infulene, and declined to comment.
By Dário Cossa
Source: O País
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