DOCTORS at Oshakati Intermediate Hospital are being accused of refusing to attend to a 29-year-old man with a fractured foot after one of his family members clashed with orthopaedic surgeon Dr Oumar Traore, However, Traore, who attended to Gabriel Theofilus, said the patient was not discharged because of any argument with the doctor, but because his condition was stable.
He said that the family member threatened him while telling him that patients from Southern African Development Community member states are treated in Namibia free of charge.
"Although I argued with the family member, I will not vent my anger ON the patient. That opinion that they have of us is wrong," Traore said.
Theofilus, who is an Angolan national, was admitted to the hospital on 23 May after he reportedly fell from a motorcycle and fractured his foot in Angola.
Theofilus says he was treated at Engela District Hospital, but was transferred to Oshakati Intermediate Hospital on the same day.
He says he was hospitalised from 23 to 28 May, and was discharged from the hospital on Saturday - despite not having recovered.
When he arrived at Oshakati, Traore allegedly told him to buy a vacuum addressing machine to remove a blood clot from his foot.
Theofilus says he was told the machine costs around N$7 000 at a local pharmacy.
He called his family members to bring the money to the hospital, he says.
The next day, his cousin Tangeni Wapota delivered the money, upon which a female doctor allegedly told him and Theofilus a similar machine is available at the hospital, but lacks a cable.
"They said the money was going to be used to buy medication that were to be used in the machine," Theofilus says.
On Saturday, another cousin, Michael Amakali, whom he says also works at the hospital, allegedly confronted Traore about the machine.
The two were allegedly involved in a nasty verbal fight, after which Traore discharged Theofilus without his health passport.
At the time, he says, he received medication intravenously, but a nurse removed the drip and told him to go home.
Theofilus says he was only attended to again on Tuesday when his family went to visit him.
"I don't know why they discharged me when I was still on a drip. The nurses also asked for my ID card, and I said I don't have one. They forced me to leave the hospital while at the same time asking me for money to buy crutches," he says.
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An orthopaedic surgeon at Oshakati Intermediate Hospital who only identifies himself as 'Dr Hendrick', in a meeting on Tuesday afternoon which The Namibian also attended, said no orthopaedic surgeon at Oshakati Intermediate Hospital would attend to Theofilus, because "Amakali had told Traore sh*t".
"Who is going to attend to him? I don't think there is a specialist who will be willing to attend to him, because your family member told the doctor sh*t.
"There are a lot of orthopaedics at Oshakati and Ongwediva. Maybe you can take the patient there, because now if anything happened to the patient you may say it happened because of that confrontation," he says.
'Dr Hendrick' added that he declined to operate on a patient who broke his leg in a car accident two weeks ago.
"I told him not to eat anything, he went on to eat his pap. I refused to operate on him. I told him there are many orthopaedics around Oshakati and Ongwediva," he said.
Oshakati Intermediate Hospital's acting superintendent, Dr Phillip Nakangombe, referred The Namibian to the head of the hospital's orthopaedic department, Dr Andreas Voigt.
Voigt promised to provide a response today.
Yesterday Amakali and a brother of Theofilus, Benicio Joao, however, said the hospital called Theofilus back to be attended to by another doctor.
