Over 1 000 infants die at iconic facility
THE shocking figure of more than 1 000 infant deaths at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital over the past three years has been highlighted by a Lenasia woman who lost her quadruplets in the hospital.
Khumbuzile Xaba yesterday revealed that her quadruplets died “mysteriously” , hours after she gave birth to them in June in the Soweto hospital.
Xaba said her children’s deaths were unexplained, as hospital officials have yet to inform her about the cause of death.
Gauteng Health MEC Dr Gwen Ramokgopa told the legislature on Friday that 1 338 infants died at birth in the iconic hospital from 2014 to 2016.
Ramokgopa was responding to a question by the DA’s spokesperson for health in the province, Jack Bloom.
In her response, seen by The Star, Ramokgopa said that 446 babies died in 2014; 466 in 2015; and 426 last year.
Ramokgopa said over the same period, 293 babies were born with mild asphyxia (or lack of oxygen) and 28 more with severe asphyxia.
The causes of death at the hospital over the period, the MEC detailed, included infection, asphyxia, congenital abnormalities and babies born prematurely.
Xaba’s quadruplets were also premature, as she gave birth seven months into her pregnancy.
The 37-year-old alleged that doctors refused to tell her and her husband what caused the death of their babies, saying she was only informed of reasons for the first-born child’s possible death.
Xaba gave birth to three boys and a girl.
“I was told that the first born died as he had no knowledge of how to fend for himself. The doctor told me that my child died because, while he was still in the womb, I did everything for him, including fending for him,” a distraught Xaba explained.
She added that her husband Enos Bila went to ask for the post-mortem report, but said Bila was told that the results will be given to a lawyer – should the couple choose to fight the hospital legally.
“What hurt me most was that, as the parents of the children, the hospital feels that we don’t have the right to know how our children died – but someone not connected to my family (a lawyer) has the right to see the post-mortem results,” Xaba pointed out.
“We don’t even have a lawyer. How does the hospital expect us to afford a lawyer when we are this destitute?
“This ordeal has had a terrible effect on me. I haven’t had decent sleep since the day I lost my children.
“I was not even afforded some counselling, and I do need someone whom I can speak to, because I have been left severely traumatised by this whole issue.”
Ramokgopa said there hasn’t “been any negligence identified” for the hospital’s high infant-mortality rate.
But Bloom disputed this, saying although he felt Ramokgopa was making infant mortality “a necessary priority”, he did not believe that negligence did not play a role in these alarming deaths.
“We need to first establish whether any of those baby deaths were avoidable because there are various reasons listed for the baby deaths, including infection, asphyxia and congenital abnormalities.
“Some of those reasons (congenital abnormalities) are unavoidable,” said Bloom.
“But, from the reply that the MEC gave to me, I’m not confident that all measures are being taken to avoid these deaths,” he said.
Ramokgopa’s spokesperson Khutso Rabothata referred all queries to departmental spokesperson Vuyo Sabani. Detailed questions sent to Sabani about Xaba’s plight and the department’s plans to curb infant mortality were unanswered at the time of publication.
Sabani had acknowledged receipt of the questions.
Speaking at Joburg’s Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital on Sunday, Ramokgopa conceded that medical litigation posed a “financial risk” to the department’s “ability to ensure access to healthcare”.
She announced a raft of measures to curb maternal and infant mortality at birth, including the acquisition of 20 more obstetrics ambulances by the end of this financial year.
I’m not convinced that negligence did not play a role