Hospital nightmare must be investigated

THE startling circumstances surrounding the death of a 28-year-old mother after giving birth to a baby girl in Empangeni has turned the spotlight on the persistent health care challenges that bedevil efficiency at State hospitals.
While a rare incident at the region’s premier mother and child institution, it nonetheless does not detract from the seriousness of the issue at hand.
The harrowing tale of Sandile Mthethwa’s delivery room experience at the Lower Umfolozi War Memorial Regional Hospital can only be described as a catastrophe, pointing to grave oversights or professional negligence that must be explained.
After a standard caesarean section, doctors discovered a few days later that there was a leak in her intestines – possibly from an incision made during the C-section process – and she was taken back to theatre.
But the family was not notified of Sandile’s deteriorating prognosis and mother Zandile was shocked to find her daughter in a coma when she arrived to fetch mother and baby.
Worse was the news that Sandile had reportedly been taken to the mortuary – six days before she died – and then wheeled into the ICU.
The final agony was the fact that a startled mother had to find her daughter with a gaping wound from a surgical procedure.
No family should have to bear such trauma.
There are many unanswered questions and the family must utilise proper channels to get answers.
At the same time, we acknowledge that the hospital caters for a large majority of mothers who hail from impoverished communities, currently serving a population of 2.8 million in the uThungulu, uMkhanyakude and Zululand districts.
With countless success stories to tell, the hospital offers highly specialised treatment, state-of-the-art equipment and hi-tech health services to the most vulnerable in Zululand.
While we agree that the shocking incident is not a common occurrence, it should not happen on any given day.
The challenge for an already overstretched and under-resourced health sector is to demonstrate rapid improvements in the quality of care and service delivery indicators such as waiting time, treatment and patient satisfaction.
We hope the visible improvement in access to health care countrywide has not come at the detriment of the quality of heath care to the most vulnerable of our society.