Negligent nurses at Chiredzi General Hospital recently
caused the death of a newly-born baby after they reportedly abandoned the
mother as she was about to give birth, TellZim News has learnt.
The Chimene family has since lodged a complainant with the
hospital administration after a family member, Dorcus Zvenyika, gave birth to a
baby boy all by herself on the floor.
The nurses, who were under the supervision of one Sister
Mutingwende, are said to have ignored her travails.
The nurses were reportedly notified that the woman was
about to deliver but they ignored, and the woman’s baby fell headfirst onto the
floor and died moments later.
Zvenyika’s case is said to be just but a tip of the iceberg
of the despicable abuses that patients at the hospital suffer at the hands of
staff members.
The abuse and neglect is said to be more pronounced in the
maternity ward where labouring women need the most care.
A close source said labouring women are often not given any
assistance when they want to visit the toilets while others are left to deliver
on the floor if the nurses consider the women to be exaggerating the pain of
their labour.
“Yes, we lost a baby at the hospital. We have talked with
hospital administration and nurses who were on duty have been summoned. It is
quite fortunate that the mother herself did not die in labour,” said family
spokesperson Josiah Chimene, who is brother to Zvenyika’s husband Prince
Chimene.
Chiredzi Medical Superintendent, David Tarumbwa said he was
on study leave but will have to check with the hospital if the case was
reported.
“I am glad that this case has names and the time when it
happened. We can easily trace and investigate the issue. I will have to check
with the administration if the case was reported,” said Tarumbwa.
Several cases of expectant mothers being left alone to
deliver their babies on the floor are said to be under investigation at the
hospital.
Bernadette Chipembere, a community activist, said she had
eyewitness accounts of sheer neglect at the hospital.
“This is going out of hand. I saw members of the Chimene
family crying while standing at the hospital's main entrance. I also once
assisted a woman who had been abandoned outside of the ward and I later learnt
that she was made to give birth on the floor,” said Chipembere.
She blamed the rot partly on government’s failure to
adequately fund hospitals and for its lack of concern for the welfare of poor
people who are the most dependent on the public health system.
“I can also blame
the government for this rot. Only two nurses are left to attend more than 45
pregnant women on delivery beds, and there are also few beds at the hospital.
Nurses are demoralised because their efforts are not being sufficiently
rewarded. They have to do with inadequate drugs and equipment,” she said.
TellZim News
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