Poor medical decisions in treatment of Luthuli

THE Department of Health under the apartheid government made a decision that prevented the transfer of Inkosi Albert Luthuli to King Edward VIII Hospital in Durban, which was well equipped with neurosurgeon’s tools that might have saved his life, said Advocate Annah Chuene.

- BONGANI HANS

Chuene, who was among three National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) senior lawyers probing the cause of Luthuli’s death in a reopened inquest, said on Thursday in the NPA’s closing remarks, they would highlight the role of medical practitioners in his death on July 21, 1967.

Chuene was leading evidence from the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health’s senior forensic pathologist, Dr Sibusiso Johannes Nsele.

Since the reopened inquiry started, it was revealed that Luthuli was found at the Mvoti River railway line bridge at about 10am. He was brought to the hospital at 11.45am, where he was immediately attended to by senior medical superintendent Dr Gwendoline Mary Gregarsan.

Gregarsan could not help him because she was not a neurosurgeon.

It was only at 2.20pm that neurosurgeon Dr Mauritus Joubert arrived and treated him for five minutes before he passed away at 2.25 pm.