> This story which surfaced around two years ago initially referred to
> a single patient and despite a thorough investigation was
> not substantiated. It is sad that the story would appear to
> have escalated to allegedly weekly deaths and as such casts serious
> doubt on the standard of South African health care. The story which is
> patently untrue is typical of an urban legend.
I have an interest in the methods of science and thus find the ethics
and methods of journalism intriguing. So I wasted a few hours doing
some research into this story. I went to a library and found the
story on the front page of the Cape Times on 13 June with the byline
Lindiz van Zilla. The version posted by Ross Anderson embellished
the Cape Times story with details such as the cleaner being unable to
hear anything above the noise being made.
To find out if there had been any follow up reports I then telephoned
the newsdesk of the Cape Times. Lindiz van Zilla is apparently a
student who only works on Sundays, but another journalist was very
helpful. Her first reaction was that this sounded like an urban
legend. Later she telephoned me to say that her search of their
files had found nothing more.
The front page position of the article and the allocation of a
byline convey an air of authority which is minimally diminished by
the "cover my butt" last sentence which says that a hospital
spokesman knew nothing of "the" incident. I find it ironic that the
article immediately above it begins "Apartheid era spies are still in
business collecting information and spreading disinformation to harm
the government and people no longer faithful to the old guard".
The story of this story makes a good case for EBR - Evidence Based
Reporting! Would this mean a dull world in which newspapers would
have to forego headlines such as "cleaner polishes off patients" ? I
doubt it.
Michael
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Dr Michael Power, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health,
University of Cape Town & Red Cross Children's Hospital,
Rondebosch 7700, Cape Town, South Africa
Tel (27 21) 658 5111 Fax (27 21) 689 1287
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