SIES man Crestcare Malmesbury !!!!

My fiancée is a paraplegic and uses a wheelchair. She was treated at Crestcare Malmesbury after she began fainting repeatedly — 50 to 100 times a day — losing consciousness for roughly 10 seconds at a time before coming around again. We rushed her to the ER, where Dr Blom was genuinely helpful and attentive. Thank you, Dr Blom. You were the exception.

From there, she was moved to a general ward — not an ICU — despite fainting constantly and having a well-documented history of cardiac problems and multiple heart operations. No monitor of any kind was placed on her. Not one. A patient with a serious cardiac history, fainting dozens of times a day, and the hospital's response was to skip monitoring entirely and just put in a drip. NICE.

She was admitted on the Friday. The doctor saw her that evening and mentioned they would be running tests to identify the problem, including a heart sonar. Twenty-four hours later, no test had been done — except for a sleep study and a EKG. Why a sleep study? Because Dr Basson had determined that the most likely cause of a woman fainting up to 100 times a day was sleep apnoea. For the record: she does not have sleep apnoea.

Being both paraplegic and fainting constantly, she needed assistance to use the toilet — because every time she went, she would faint at least once, and without help, that meant hitting the floor face-first. She asked the nursing staff for assistance. They flatly refused and said “NO”. They didn’t even offer her a bedpan, she eventually asked for one . An hour passed. No bedpan. When she followed up, she was told all the bedpans were in the ICU and there were none available. Fortunately, I arrived for a visit and was able to help her myself. We are still waiting for that bedpan.

By Monday morning, the sleep test was complete. Dr Basson came by to report that while they were still investigating, he was now almost certain the cause was sleep apnoea. After making multiple trips to the hospital manager to raise my concerns about Dr Basson and the handling of this case, nothing changed — not helped, I must say, by the fact that the hospital manager has no medical background whatsoever, which I find deeply troubling. Eventually, after I became significantly more forceful in demanding proper care, they agreed to perform the heart sonar. The technician who conducted it concluded that her aorta was leaking and flagged it as a concern. He apparently communicated this directly to Dr Basson. Dr Basson's response was to continue insisting it was sleep apnoea.

By Tuesday morning, we had seen enough. We discharged her and drove her to Panorama Hospital. In 12 hours, Panorama ran more tests than Crestcare had managed in four days. They confirmed her brain and heart were otherwise fine, identified the leaking aorta as the issue, referred her to an external heart specialist for follow-up, and advised her to stop taking the nerve pain medication she had been on, as it was directly worsening the fainting episodes. When we told the Panorama doctors about Dr Basson's diagnosis, they were utterly shocked.

Our medical aid has since paid Dr Basson for his treatment. I wish there was a way to reverse that payment.

If you have a broken foot, by all means, try Crestcare. But if you are seriously ill and they assign you Dr Basson — make sure your will and testament are in order first.