White baby suffers deep cut on head during inept caesarian section delivery at government Nelspruit Hospital - the nurses tried to hide the fact that the cut was much more severe than the couple were told by covering it up with a plaster and refusing to let the mom see the baby...
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NELSPRUIT – February 20 2015 - A young couple has been so traumatised by their first-born’s delivery in Rob Ferreira Hospital that they don’t want more children.
Their baby girl suffered a cut on the head when she was being delivered by caesarian section on Friday.
The couple spoke to Lowvelder, but requested to remain anonymous. The man took his his wife (22) to the hospital shortly after she went into labour that day. “Staff at the hospital were rude to us from the start. None of them introduced themselves or explained what they were doing or told us what to expect,” he said.
His mother had to bring them toilet paper since the hospital had none. “I’ve had four internal examinations performed by four different people. Some of the nurses’ nails were very long and it caused excruciating pain,” the woman said. “I was told that my water hadn’t broken and they tried to do so by poking some sort of stick inside,” she added.
She was later informed that she hadn’t dilated enough and that she would have to undergo a C-section. At that time, load-shedding commenced and the woman had to climb two flights of stairs with a catheter and a drip because the lifts weren’t working.
“When we got upstairs, we were told to go down again. My wife was in so much pain, I was scared that she might fall on the stairs,” her husband said. The electricity came back on and she was finally taken to theatre. Personnel started with the C-section and the husband suddenly heard the doctor say: “you’ve cut the head”.
“I could see blood dripping from my daughter’s head, but the doctor assured me that it was only a small cut,” he said.
The baby had to receive four stitches. “I wasn’t allowed to see my wife and was told to go home so that she could rest.”
He went back the following day and was alarmed when his wife told him that she hasn’t seen their baby yet.
He requested a nurse to bring her to them and they saw that the stitches had been covered up with a plaster.
“When we took it off we saw that two of the stitches had come loose. The cut was much deeper than we initially thought.” A doctor closed the wound again with five stitches.
“The birth of a baby is supposed to be a joyous time in your life, but we had a horrible encounter. We’ve always wanted children, but doubt that we will put ourselves through such torment again,” he said.
Mr Dumisani Malamule, spokesman for the Department of Health, on enquiry said that the baby’s head was mistakenly cut with a scalpel during the procedure. “The C-section was performed by two qualified medical officers. We are investigating the incident and corrective steps will be taken against the officials responsible for this mishap,” he said.
Meanwhile, a source phoned Lowvelder this week after having read a report in last week’s edition about doctors who had to operate with flash lights in the hospital since the generators were not fully functional during load-shedding. The source said that the generators were not working as they should and that it was because of a lack of maintenance. “A generator is an engine that has to be serviced every six months. However, this is not being done,” the source said. “Rob Ferreira has three 800 kvA generators and only one is working sporadically,” the source added.
However, Malamule insisted that two of the generators were functioning and that only one was out of order. “The two generators are able to carry the entire hospital and the third one is a stand-by generator. The two generators supply the lifts, ICU, casualties, maternity wards, theatre and the administrative office, to name a few.”
He added that the transformer of one of the two operational generators was affected during load-shedding on Friday. “The affected generator was the one which supplies power to some of the lifts, theatre and maternity ward. It was fixed by the maintenance team which is always on site. ” He said the stand-by generator was currently being attended to.
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