Two first time parents are mourning the loss of their first born child who died in-utero and was among the alleged 23 neonatal deaths were reported at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital in one weekend, during the month of April.
The unexpected death of the child has sparked fury and anger over the alleged negligence at the public hospital, with calls for the medical staff implicated to be probed. The young parents, Kresenzo and Shanteria Soobhag of Rydalvale, Phoenix said they were thrilled when they received news that they were expecting their first child and just like any expectant parents, they thought of possible names, bought baby clothes and were all set to welcome their bundle of joy into the world.
The grieving parents said their whole world was shattered when they unexpectedly lost their baby boy, Ezekiel Elijah Soobhag on 16 April following excruciating labour pains which began the night before. The devastated mother, Shanteria Soobhag said: “I had been going to the clinic regularly for check ups and was due to deliver my full-term baby when I began experiencing labour pains on Saturday, 15 April.
“I told my father-in-law to take me to the Phoenix Community Health Centre (Unit 10 Clinic) and was put on a drip on arrival at the clinic. The nurses did a health check up on myself and baby and informed me that the child heart beat was low. They said they couldn’t do much as there were no doctors available and will call an ambulance to take me to Gandhi Hospital. I was worried about my baby’s heart beat and requested to use my own transport to Gandhi Hospital but the nurses said I could start bleeding since I was already on a drip.”
Shanteria said she waited for more than five hours for the ambulance to arrive. “The ambulance only came in the next morning at 5am after I had been waiting since the previous night. I was stabilised and taken to Gandhi’s where I was only seen to at 6am on Sunday, 17 April. The nurses checked up on us and my baby was still alive. I asked if I could be taken for an emergency caesarian to save the baby as his heart beat was low. They disregarded my pleas and carried on with other things. I was only seen to by a doctor after mid-day. She checked for baby’s heart beat and couldn’t find it, she said I’m still in labour and just left me there. When she came back 15 minutes later, I asked her if my baby was fine and she said I’m still in labour and need to relax. I asked her again if baby was okay and she said ‘no, the baby is dead’,” said the grieving mother.
While still processing the news of her child’s death, Shanteria said she asked the doctor why she was not told that her baby boy had died in utero. She alleged that the doctor’s response was “I can’t do anything, the baby is dead now”.
“She then told me that they were going to shift me to another section and induce labour for me. It was the most difficult and traumatic thing for me to be expected to deliver my baby knowing very well that he had already passed. After carrying him for nine months and not being able to bring him home was heartbreaking. They then took me to a separate ward where they broke my water bag and induced my labour to the fullest number which made me experience heavy contractions. I was in so much of pain and none of the nurses came to see to me no matter how loud I screamed because my baby was already dead so they weren’t bothered about me. I started pushing because I couldn’t make it anymore with the pain, I was screaming and on top of my lungs and it still took a while before I could get the nurses attention. I finally delivered baby and I was left with him for two hours before they took him away.”
The traumatised mother said she was not given any explanation as to what really happened to her baby. “I was given a letter to take with me when making baby’s death certificate, it was marked confidential. I opened the letter anyway because I wanted to know the reason for my baby’s death. Under causes of death, it was written ‘unexplained’. I honestly feel that my baby’s life could have been saved if the medical staff had tried hard enough. They are trained to do emergency caesarians but declined to perform one on me when my baby needed it the most. They waited for his heart beat to stop completely before inducing my labour, this could have been surely done earlier to save my baby’s life. I can’t sleep at night, I keep having flashbacks of the entire experience. They didn’t even offer me counselling,” said Soobhag.
Enraged by the shocking death the devastated family has since called for the doctor and nursing staff to be investigated. Baby Ezekiel’s grandfather, Mervyn Soobhag said: “What was the point of inducing labour after the baby had passed. If they did that in the early stages and the child passed on it could have been acceptable but doing it later on is absolutely unacceptable. The problem started at the Unit 10 clinic as she had to wait for an ambulance for more than five hours. During that time frame so much could have been done to save the baby. It is even more shocking that so many babies died at this facility on the same weekend. Something is wrong there – something is very wrong at the hospital. There’s clearly a desperate need for more doctors, nurses and ambulances within the health sector because had there been sufficient medical staff, my grandson would be alive today. What shocked us even more is that a post mortem was not conducted on baby however there were lacerations on various parts of the baby’s body. Serious intervention needs to be done at this hospital to prevent the loss of life which occurs frequently. Innocent lives cannot continue to be lost like this, like it’s not a big deal. It’s a traumatic experience for families, of which many may never come back from.”
“Mahatma Gandhi services a large number of people from various areas and for many, it is the only state care option available. It’s sad that people go there wanting to be saved and end up dying due to negligence. Too many deaths have been ignored but we will not let my grandson’s death go in vain. We want an inquiry to take place and the implicated staff to be dealt with accordingly,” said the irate grandfather.
A Phoenix health professional who didn’t want to be named said this was common practice at state hospitals due to the lack of resources. “Normally you would inform the patient and explain that she should go into spontaneous labour for the body to expel the dead baby. Medically if the foetus has died, then the risk to the mother is minimised. She must be monitored throughout the process of managing an intra-uterine death. However, in most cases, the mental stress and trauma that the mother is put through is not taken into account and this is where the system is flawed,” said the health professional.
Questions were posed to both the hospital and the Department of Health however a comment was not forthcoming at the time of going to print.
