Johannesburg - The trauma of her baby “negligently” dying in Chris Hani-Baragwanath Academic Hospital was etched on 22-year-old Rudzani Molaudzi’s face after being “forced” to deliver her daughter by herself.
The mother is demanding that action be taken against the staff, who she blames for the loss of her child.
This comes as the iconic Soweto hospital’s head of paediatrics, Professor Sithembiso Velaphi, conceded to The Star that the combined 15 vacant posts in the neonatal and maternity wards were hindering staff from adequately conducting their work.
Velaphi said he was investigating Molaudzi’s plight to ascertain what had happened, and would communicate this to her and her family.
Speaking at her Eldorado Park home south of Joburg on Thursday, Molaudzi said she had to deliver her baby last week after being ignored for hours by hospital staff while she was in labour.
Molaudzi said her ordeal began around 8pm on Tuesday when she arrived with paramedics at the hospital in what she said was excruciating pain, but she wasn't given any medication or put on a drip.
She said nurses told her there were no empty beds in the maternity ward. “What upset me the most was that other pregnant women in labour were arriving after me, but were given medication and put on drips - except for me,” she said.
“I was told that a sonar would be done and that I should wait for my turn. I was only attended to after 10pm, when my labour pains had become unbearable.”
She said a doctor, who she described as Indian and short in stature, examined her, and she was told that her baby's delivery time was still far off.
Molaudzi said the doctor told her to return to the bench and sit, even after she told him repeatedly that her daughter was coming.
After midnight, and still unattended to, Molaudzi said she could feel her baby coming strongly.
“I had to deliver the baby on my own because I could feel her head against my thigh. I could feel that my daughter could not wait any longer.
"After I delivered her, a concerned nurse passing put me on a gurney, as she could see I was delirious,” she said.
“The doctor arrived shortly afterwards and pronounced my baby dead, without checking her. The same concerned nurse asked the doctor: ‘How can you pronounce the baby dead without examining her'?
“The baby was examined; she started crying and the doctor ran away. The nurses then took my child to the ICU.”
Molaudzi added that when her baby was born, she wasn't wrapped in warm clothing, even though it was cold in the admissions area.
Hospital records show that Molaudzi’s daughter died at 9.45am, nine hours after she gave birth to her. She named her Lwandle - Nguni for “ocean”.
“My love for her was as big as the ocean,” she said, tears streaming down her face while sitting in front of a blue walking ring that she said Lwandle would have played in. Lwandle was buried last Friday.
Velaphi acknowledged that the seven vacancies in the neonatal unit and eight in the maternity ward were inhibiting staff from doing their work, as all hands were required on deck in such a busy hospital.
The vacancies were also revealed in a legislature answer last week by Gauteng Health MEC Dr Gwen Ramokgopa to Jack Bloom, the DA’s health spokesperson in the province.
Ramokgopa confirmed in the same response that 1338 infants had died at birth in the hospital from 2014 to 2016.
“We need all the numbers that we can to operate optimally. So, if there is a vacancy, yes, it does affect us a lot,” Velaphi stressed.
Gauteng health spokesperson Prince Hamnca said: “Appointments to vacant positions are done on a continuous basis. An appointment was concluded recently. It should be noted that there is frequent movement of staff, which creates gaps.”
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