WHAT should have been a joyous occasion for a Gweru couple after welcoming their triplets turned into a horror script when all newly-born babies – one after the other – died in as yet unclear circumstances before leaving the hospital.
BY PHYLLIS MBANJE
Indications, however, are that this could have been a case of gross negligence and may be just a tip of the iceberg into the horror chambers that most of the country’s public health institutions have become.
The heartbroken mother, who believes her children would have survived had the staff at the hospital been caring enough, told NewsDay Weekender that she went to Gweru Provincial Hospital on a Sunday after experiencing pains in her womb and noticing a discharge.
“I was only 25 weeks into my pregnancy and was carrying triplets,” she said.
Upon arrival at the hospital, she told the nurse on duty that she was in deep pain, but she alleged the staff did not attend to her immediately.
She said she overheard a staff member on that particular day saying she had refused to be admitted, which was not true.
“One of them came to me and asked why I had refused to be admitted. I told her that was not true, but no one came to attend to me,” she said.
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She was later admitted and told to wait for the doctor. Her blood pressure was high. The doctor finally came and prescribed medication, which included antibiotics and pills to contain her blood pressure, which was erratic. She was also requested to buy cotton wool and syringes.
“My husband bought the required items and brought them, but the nurses said they were not sure if they should give me since the blood pressure had lowered by then,” she recalled. Her pain did not subside and the discharge was getting worse.
“They kept telling me I was in pain because I was carrying more than one baby. The nurses also said I had too much fluid in my tummy that is why I was having the discharge.”
They treated her like a cry baby and largely ignored her. By Monday morning, her condition had worsened and she was now having a terrible backache synonymous with labour pains.
“I was told that it was normal and one nurse actually said shingirira (endure it). I could not eat anything because of the pain,” she said.
“The doctor came, but he did not even examine me and by then the discharge was so frequent that I made many trips to the toilet.”
Throughout the night she complained about the pain, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. At around midnight she woke up with a strong urge to relieve herself. While in the toilet she felt a warm mass slithering from her womb.
“I felt it dangling and I put cotton wool to stop it from falling. I came out of the bathroom and shouted at the nurses that something had come out and it was not the discharge,” she said, adding that the nurses instructed her to go to the delivery ward.
Waddling with a strange object between her legs, Patience finally made it and clambered onto the bed.
“One of the nurses came and when she took away the cotton wool, she told me to kneel on the bed and I complied. She said it was the placenta and tried to shove it back in,” she recalled.
The placenta, or afterbirth, normally comes last, but according to Mayo Clinic, a reputable United States of America facility, in a condition referred to as placental abruption the placenta might come first. The placenta peels away from the inner wall of the uterus before delivery — either partially or completely.
Placental abruption can deprive the baby of oxygen and nutrients and cause heavy bleeding in the mother. If left untreated, placental abruption puts both mother and baby in jeopardy.
Exhausted from the pain and the invasive prodding, Patience lay on her side as instructed.
“They told me they were phoning the doctor but because there was another emergency he could not attend to me. The doctor eventually came but he did not examine me. I could hear him telling the nurses that at 25 weeks the babies would not survive and that a Caesarian Section was out of question,” she said.
“I asked the midwife what would happen to me and she said they would wait for the babies to come out.”
Later the nurses told her to push in what Patience described as a harrowing experience as the babies would not come out no matter how hard she pushed. Washed out and weak, she felt herself giving up. But in her last haul, all three babies came out.
One died after two hours and the other two were put on oxygen, but there were no feeding tubes for the tiny babies.
Representatives of Touching Lives Initiative fronted by life coach and philanthropist, Rabison Shumba, approached the hospital so they could assist in purchasing the required instruments and medications, but got a tongue-lashing from the nurses, one of whom asked them bluntly how they knew if the babies were going survive.
Patience said the nurses had asked her family to look for a particular size of the tubes and when her husband brought them, they said they were the wrong size.
“When I went for one of the visits I found the tubes inserted. I do not know where they came from,” she said, adding that it was painful not to hold her babies as they lay battling for life.
“On another occasion I found one of the babies with what looked like blood in her mouth.”
A nurse confirmed it was blood but would not proffer any explanation. The babies started turning yellow and the staff told her it was due to lack of milk. Four days after delivery, Patience was informed that one of the babies was in a critical condition.
“When I received a phone call from the neo-natal ward in the middle of the night I just knew,” she said, adding that they now pinned their hopes on the sole survivor.
But their hopes were dashed when, a day later, Patience found nurses frantically trying to resuscitate the baby. Fearful of losing the last of her triplets she asked what was going on.
“They rudely told me to sit down and that it was not my place to ask,” she said. “I later received a phone call from the nursery… I had that sinking feeling again that my baby was no more.”
Within a week Patience had lost all her babies. She is still struggling to reconcile her feelings.
“Losing my babies was bad enough, but the treatment I received from the staff was a shock to me and no one deserves it,” she said in a broken voice laden with sadness only a grieving mother knows.
The hospital’s public relations officer, Violet Hlupeki, appeared to be unaware of the case when contacted for comment, but later asked that questions be put in writing. She had not responded by the time of going to print.
