A couple is demanding answers from a Durban hospital, claiming the staff botched an op which led to the death of their baby.
|||Durban - A Phoenix couple is demanding answers from the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital, claiming the staff botched an operation which led to the death of their newborn baby.
Yogan Pillay and his wife, Therosha, are accusing doctors at the hospital of negligence. They claim that when Therosha underwent a Caesarean section on Wednesday, a doctor accidentally cut their baby on the forehead.
By Thursday the baby was put in an incubator, with her condition apparently deteriorating.
“But they still told us there was nothing to worry about and she would pull through”.
But in the early hours of Friday night the hospital asked permission to draw fluids from the back of the baby’s head so that tests could be conducted. The Pillays agreed.
At 4am Yogan received a call asking him to come to the hospital.
He was at the hospital after 6am. A few minutes later he was told the baby had died.
He said that at first some hospital staff told him they had detected a low heartbeat and internal bleeding. “But yesterday they said the cause of death was due to a virus attacking the baby’s liver.”
Hospital spokesman, Sibonelo Ngcobo, said it had concluded its internal investigation into the matter but refused to divulge findings to the media.
“The hospital reserves the right not to communicate confidential information via the media.”
ANC MPL Omie Singh said the family deserved a full explanation from the hospital.
Attorney Sundeep Singh, who has offered his services to the family pro bono, said the first step is to establish the facts. “If there is negligence the health professionals would have to be reported to the Health Professions Council.
“This is so that these things can be prevented from happening in the future.”
Daily News