LIMPOPO – The mother of the baby, Lucky Moepya is now pursuing legal action and wants the Department of Health to pay for her loss. The 25-year old mother told CV she went to the Philadeplhia Hospital on 6 October last year after experiencing labour pains.
“When I arrived at the hospital, I found two nurses who told me to lie down on the bed to check the heartbeat. The male nurse who was checking told me there were two strong heartbeats,” said the distraught mother.
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“But the nurse told me I was still far from delivering and told me to lie down on the bench. The nurse left me on the bench, and the labour pains got worse, I could feel the baby coming. Fortunately, one nurse came and told me to walk to the labour room. I walked three steps and the head of the baby was already out. I cried for help but my pleas fell on deaf ears as the nurse kept on saying I must walk on my own,” she said.
“The first baby fell on the ground as I was trying to walk and died after the nurse cut the umbilical cord. While I was crying hysterically on the ground, the nurse told me the baby was not breathing. A few minutes later, I went to the labour room with the help of the nurse and naturally gave birth to the second baby.
Moepya said she reported the matter to the hospital and to the department which conducted a forensic investigations into the matter.
“This is not a war. All I need is answers. I want to know why the nurses refused to help me when I needed to be helped. I also want to know why they turned a deaf ear when I told them the baby was coming. Lastly I want to know why they kept the findings of their investigations until May 2019 when they were completed in February. I want to know how they plan to help bring my baby back,” she asked.
Contacted for comment, Department of Health Spokesperson, Neil Shikwambane said:
“The cause of the death of the baby was not as a result of the negligence since our findings showed that it was an intrauterine death, which occurred some time ago as evident by macerated fetus.” Shikwambane said the department held the report in an effort to follow and exhaust all processes until the HOD has approved the release of the report. “But the hospital’s CEO has been interacting with the patient,” he said.
Shikwambane further said disciplinary measures were invoked and two of the nurses were accordingly charged with misconduct. The report states that the patient might not have been informd on admission that the one baby’s heart beat was not felt and therefore not alive.
