Hospital refuses to comment about death of mom and baby
Spokesperson of Dr Yusuf Dadoo Hospital refuses to give answers as to why the hospital did not release the body of the late Alicia le Grange more than a week after she and her unborn baby died, for a postmortem.
Dr Yusuf Dadoo Hospital has refused to answer uncomfortable questions about the circumstances around the death of a mother and her unborn baby earlier in July while in the care of their professionals.
Read the initial article here: Mother and baby die due to lack of oxygen
The News was present when Deon le Grange had a meeting with hospital spokesperson, Puseletso Mabidikame and one of the doctor’s a few days after his wife and unborn child had died. In a strange turn of events, the doctor asked News journalist Marizka Coetzer if the deceased was a smoker, which left Coetzer wondering if the doctor was trying to blame Le Grange’s death on something else.
Related article: Shocking details about mother and baby’s death
Coetzer believed that the hospital, on a few occasions, misled Deon and told him that a postmortem on his wife’s body was not necessary. However, they changed their reason stating that it was too late to do a postmortem since the body had been lying there for a week.
It also came to the News’ attention that a staff member at the hospital told Le Grange that it would cost him R4 000 to do a postmortem, which brought him to tears as he did not have that amount of money.
The original doctor who treated Le Grange’s wife on the day she died allegedly could not sign off the body and the body was signed off eight days later by a completely different doctor. One of the doctors at the hospital then contacted the News and claimed that police, who were meant to pick up the body, said the body did not look like it needed to undergo a postmortem, hence they did not open a docket.
On the morning 23 July Coetzer contacted Mabidikame to find out why Le Grange’s body is still at the hospital more than a week after she died.
Mabidikame, who was on leave that day, requested the News to hold back the information until the following day because she prefers to see the query on paper before officially responding.
The News however went forth and published an article and shortly there after Le Grange’s body was released and collected by her family to be buried.
Related article: Gebroke man praat oor sy vrou en ongebore baba se dood
Questions were sent to Mabidikame on 30 July asking why the body was kept in the hospital for eight days and why the doctors were too ‘scared’ to sign off the body.
The News also asked about the normal procedure with regards to a body being sent for a postmortem and also asked to provide records as to when the ambulance was phoned to transport Le Grange to Leratong Hospital before she died. Coetzer also wanted to know how many times they followed up about the whereabouts of the ambulance.
However by 4 August, Mabidikame had still not responded and again was given two extra days to respond.
As expected, Mabidikame could not answer any of the above questions and replied the following, “Once again we wish to convey our condolences to Alicia le Grange’s family.The hospital management will be having a redress meeting with the family to address all the concerns. The institution would also like the members of the community to use the Quality Assurance Office for complaining or when they need more clarity on services that are rendered”.
Coetzer will continue to investigate the matter.
