A two-month-old baby has died after nurses apparently failed to examine him in the three hours he was at a Gugulethu clinic.
|||Cape Town - A two-month-old baby has died after nurses apparently failed to examine him in the three hours he was at the Gugulethu community health centre.
Nokubonga Nombewu, the mother of Mbuso, claims that by the time her baby was seen by a doctor it was too late. He died in the doctor’s arms.
Nombewu claimed that despite reporting her baby – who had a swollen abdomen and had not urinated for nine hours – to a nurse on arrival she had been told to “wait your turn”.
She said she waited three hours for a doctor.
During this time, Nombewu said she approached four nurses and begged them to examine Mbuso. Only the fourth nurse called a doctor.
The provincial Department of Health has denied that Mbuso was treated only after three hours.
Faiza Steyn, spokeswoman for the department, said Mbuso’s folder had gone missing, but the clinic’s records showed “he was triaged within 30 minutes of admission”.
Steyn said records, which were acquired through “clinical reports at the trauma unit and interviews with staff on duty at the time”, showed he died within an hour of being admitted.
Steyn confirmed that there were two doctors on duty, but one was taking a nap as he had been working for long hours and had decided to take a “break when it became quieter”.
This week, Nombewu was adamant that at no point was her baby triaged by any of the nurses.
The fourth nurse called a doctor. “My baby was now screaming and had started to turn blue. He went quiet shortly after I put him in front of the doctor who was trying to put a drip on him… I think he died at that moment,” she said.
Nombewu heard of her son’s death through an informal conversation between a cleaner and security guard before she was told by medical staff.
She was asked to call a private mortuary to fetch his body.
“The undertaker went back to the clinic the following day to get death certification documents but was told the folder had gone missing,” said Nombewu, who lodged a complaint with Health MEC Theuns Botha’s office.
The baby was certified dead and a postmortem was done. However, Nombewu claimed the doctor wrote down that her baby died on May 21 – two days after he had actually died.
Steyn said circumstances surrounding the baby’s death were still “under investigation”, but she noted that the weekend that Mbuso was treated was the “busiest of the month” and this may be why she was made to wait.
Steyn conceded that releasing the body to a private mortuary was procedurally incorrect. “The attending doctor should ideally have referred the baby to the state mortuary as the cause of death was not clear,” she said.
sipokazi.fokazi@inl.co.za
Cape Argus