"For several months, our nurses have been baffled to find a
dead patient in the same bed every Friday morning," a spokeswoman
for the Pelonomi Hospital (Free State, South Africa) told
reporters.
"There was no apparent cause for any of the deaths, and
extensive checks on the air conditioning system, and a search for
possible bacterial infection, failed to reveal any clues.
"However, further inquiries have now revealed the cause of
these deaths. It seems that every Friday morning a cleaner would
enter the ward, remove the plug that powered the patient's life
support system, plug her floor polisher into the vacant socket,
then go about her business. When she had finished her chores, she
would plug the life support machine back in and leave, unaware that
the patient was now dead. She could not, after all, hear the
screams and eventual death rattle over the whirring of her
polisher.
"We are sorry, and have sent a strong letter to the cleaner in
question. Further, the Free State Health and Welfare Department is
arranging for an electrician to fit an extra socket, so there
should be no repetition of this incident. The enquiry is now
closed."