Grieving mother lays complaint against CMH

A MOTHER whose baby died in her womb says she feels violated by the delays and indifference she experienced in the government’s provincial health system.

Mdantsane resident Fundiswa Maqashu complained to the Office of Health Standards Compliance (OHSC) that she was sent home from Cecilia Makiwane Hospital (CMH) in Mdantsane with the lifeless foetus still inside her and told to return in two weeks.

She fell ill and returned before the fortnight was up, but still had to wait eight days in the labour ward before the child was surgically removed by caesarian section surgery.

During that time, she claimed, the foetus was decomposing inside her but she kept missing her turn to be wheeled into theatre because mothers with living babies needed to be treated first.

Maqashu had been going to the Gonubie clinic for prenatal care because she worked in the area.

Because state clinics do not do scans, when she was six months pregnant she was referred to CMH for a scan and that is where she was told the foetus was dead.

OHSC’s Deborah Lamola confirmed that she was the investigator assigned to Maqashu’s case.

Provincial health spokesman Lwandile Sicwetsha said doctors could take up to two weeks before delivering a still-born baby.

Surgery was the last option. He promised to escalate the matter to the hospital quality assurance manager.