Hospital rats eat cop

2003-03-09 11:34

Port Elizabeth - Huge rats at Livingstone hospital are biting chunks of flesh from corpses, and from children at the burns unit.

A widow whose dead husband was chewed by rats while in the hospital mortuary is considering taking legal action after finding the corpse had been violated.

Nonyameko Pono, 50, of New Brighton, wept when she saw how the rats had gnawed the flesh off the face of her husband, Mbuyiselo Phillip Pono, 52, a former policeman.

The Sunday Sun has learnt that Pono's corpse was the sixth body to be attacked by rats in the morgue.

Livingstone hospital medical superintendent Fred Rank said the rat attack on Pono's body had been reported to him, and investigations were under way.

"There is a big problem with rats coming into the hospital," said Rank, "but we are doing something about it."

The health department is planning to hire a company to kill the rats with poison.

Pono retired from the police service due to ill-health in 1997.

He was admitted to the hospital on February 22 and died on the same day. His funeral was held on Saturday.

Pono said she was shocked when a local undertaker told her that her husband's corpse had been chewed by rats.

"The undertaker said he noticed that my husband's face was damaged and was told rats had eaten off portions of the flesh."

Bisho legislature's health standing committee visited the hospital this week and agreed it was possible for rats to gain access to the fridges.

They recommended that the health department buy new fridges that cannot be entered by rats.

Committee chairperson Mahlubandile Qwase said they were told at the hospital that the rats chewed the rubber on the fridges' doors in order to enter them.

He however said buying new fridges would have "financial implications" each unit could cost as much as R67 000.

The rats came from drains near the hospital and were also a major problem for the nearby industrial area.

"The whole area is infested with rats," said Qwase.

"The problem needs a multi-pronged approach."

- Sunday Sun