A Zimbabwean baby has gone missing from the Rahima Moosa
Mother and Child Hospital in South Africa.
Thirty-five-year-old Hilda Mpofu, a Zimbabwean domestic
worker gave birth to premature triplets – two girls and a boy - at the facility
last Thursday, but now finds herself with only two children, a baby boy and
girl.
After giving birth, all three babies are said to have been
kept at the hospital in line with the treatment of premature babies, with the
boy having been admitted to ICU.
Mpofu was discharged from hospital on the Friday following
the births and was shocked to discover upon her return to the hospital on
Saturday that one of the girls was also in intensive care, with doctors
expressing concern about their health while denying her access to the baby.
The infant was declared dead later that day. Bongani Mpofu,
Hilda’s sister, said that when she arrived at the hospital to view the remains,
to her shock, she found that the deceased baby that was supposedly her niece
was in fact a boy.
When she raised this with the attending doctor, she was
assured that the hospital’s management and all involved parties would avail
themselves to explain what happened. Yet when she returned, there was not a
single person in sight allocated to their case.
Instead, the file of the deceased baby boy which initially
said the child was a girl had now been cancelled to reflect the right gender of
the baby.
Which led the Mpofu family to the painful question: “Where
is our baby girl?”
“They (hospital) sent me from pillar to post and that’s why
I decided to contact the media. The kids are still there at the hospital
because they were born prematurely. A boy and a girl. To us, we have a missing
child. We know we have two girls and a boy. Now we have the body of the
boy," Bongani explained.
Rahima Moosa Hospital acting CEO Dr Frew Benson told EWN
that an error occurred in the theatre where Hilda was delivering the last two
babies, with a clinician recording that the last baby was a girl whereas they
should have written male.
He further claimed that a paediatrician had met with the
Mpofu family on Monday to explain the error and offered “free DNA testing” to
allay their fears.
Bongani said that her sister was deeply traumatised.
“She can’t even speak. That is why I am the one that must
deal with this, and I am the one who recognised all this foul play. She is at a
breaking point. You know, dealing with the fact that you have triplets and then
now it’s like we are having a missing child."
Benson said that they were not happy that “the mistake
occurred” adding that the family was given counselling and discussions “were
held with the specialist paediatrician. I don’t think there is any more that
can be given".
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