New mom’s ‘nightmare’
INFECTED: CLAIMS GAUZE LEFT INSIDE HER DURING CAESAREAN DELIVERY Mamelodi Hospital claims poor wound care post discharge is to blame.
The notorious Mamelodi Hospital, east of Pretoria, stands accused again, this time by a mother claiming she went through hell after gauze strips were allegedly left inside her after a caesarean section delivery.
Precious Ndwandwe this week showed The Citizen pictures and detailed how the incision scar that had been swollen and infected “ruptured” and a piece of gauze popped out, two weeks after delivering her baby girl at the public hospital.
“I pulled it out … more of this whitish and fluffy material that I could not identify came out. A friend who took me to hospital, a trained healthcare worker, identified the material as a gauze,” she said.
Speaking from her Mamelodi East home, the mother of three said her nightmare started when she was admitted to the facility on 3 August for labour. She delivered her baby at midnight and was discharged three days later, with instructions to return after four days to remove the stitches.
Ndwandwe, 26, said she had complications with her incision from day one. She was constantly in pain, with the scar getting infected. She also could not feel her bladder filling up.
“I relayed all of this to the doctor when I went back to remove the stitches. The doctor removed the stitches and said I should come back if this did not subside,” she said.
Ndwandwe said the infection and swelling became worse and a day later, the swollen part ruptured and the gauze popped out.
She was rushed back to the hospital and showed attending nurses what had come out of her scar but the nurses insisted this was impossible. Ndwandwe said she stood her ground and told the nurses that the friend who was with her could attest to this.
“I was then advised not to tell the doctor about this and I agreed because I was in pain. I, however, told the doctor exactly what had happened. I then asked to be put on sonar to check if there was more left inside me,” she said.
The doctor, she said, told her she would have to open a file and be admitted for this to happen but she did not want to be admitted.
She went home and has been treating the infected incision with ice-cubes to help soothe the pain and swelling.
The regional hospital, infamous for negligence horrors, has denied gauze could have been left inside the patient and disputed her version of events.
It confirmed Ndwandwe was admitted for a caesarean delivery on 3 August and discharged on 5 August. But spokesperson Aobakwe Selebogo suggested Ndwandwe was to blame for the complications with the incision.
Selebogo explained that prior to being discharged, Ndwandwe, as standard operating procedure, was given counselling on proper wound care management by the hospital nursing staff.
Ndwandwe was also advised to return for the removal of her stitches after seven days but had not returned.
“[Ndwandwe] returned 14 days later with a septic wound and she was re-admitted. Investigations were done. The wound was cleaned and secondary closure was done using nylon stitches,” Selebogo said.
She was discharged 13 days later and wound care management was given again.
“… she was advised to return to the hospital or visit a local clinic to remove the stitches, but again she did not return within the stipulated time. She only returned two months and 13 days later with another septic wound and the nylon stitches still intact.”
The treating doctor requested the patient be readmitted, but she refused and absconded.
“No gauze or foreign object was left inside...” Selebogo said.
In July, Gauteng health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi revealed negligence at Gauteng hospitals had led to 1 957 deaths last year.
At least 198 were at Mamelodi Hospital, which locals have chillingly nicknamed Hospital of Death.