A WOMAN suffered terrible trauma at the hands of nurses when she had to sleep holding the body of her stillborn baby after negligence allegedly caused its death.
"They told me to sleep there with my dead baby," Yolanda Rakhajane from Vanderbijlpark in the Vaal said. The harrowing experience happened at Kopanong Hospital in Vereeniging.
She was at the hospital for four days before giving birth to the baby at about 9.30pm on Saturday. The baby had died earlier in the day.
Nurses wiped the body clean with paper towels and handed it back to her. She fell asleep with the dead baby in her arms.
When she woke up, Rakhajane told the nurses to take the body away, but she was told the morgue was closed on weekends.
The baby's body was then wrapped in plastic, covered in a blanket and placed in a trolley near her bed.
She said three other babies and a mother died through negligence at the hospital while she was there.
Her trauma started on August 29 when she went to the hospital with a referral letter from a gynaecologist for the hospital to induce labour.
But she was sent back to fetch pictures of a sonar done when she was three months pregnant.
The average duration of a pregnancy is 40 weeks, but Rakhajane was already 43 weeks pregnant.
When Rakhajane returned on Wednesday last week, she was admitted but told there were no beds in the labour ward. On Thursday, she started having contractions.
"When I told them [the nurses] I was having contractions, they said I didn't look like someone who was having contractions. They said they weren't going to entertain my pain."
Rakhajane said a doctor checked her on Friday morning. Later that day, her water broke.
She was taken to a labour ward early in the evening, where she said she overheard one of the nurses tell her colleagues that they should not worry about her as she was not yet ready to give birth.
"[The following day], the doctor confirmed that I was in labour but dilating slowly," she said.
Staff checked for her baby's heartbeat, which was present, and then put her on an antibiotics drip. After that, she was supposed to have a drip which would induce labour.
Before that could happen, she was transferred to the antenatal unit to do sonar scans to check for the baby's heartbeat. It was then discovered that the baby was dead.
She delivered a baby boy weighing 4.6kg through natural birth although large babies are generally born through Caesarean section.
The baby's grieving father, Pule Thinane, said he was even denied access to the ward to support his partner during labour.
When the couple's family protested and threatened to sue the hospital, the nurses "told me to calm down as suing the hospital wouldn't bring back my baby", Rakhajane said.
Gauteng health department spokesman Prince Hamnca said: "Hospital management is arranging a meeting with the family so they can raise their concerns.
"Post this meeting, an investigation into the allegations will be conducted and the family will be informed of the outcome."
ndabezithat@timesmedia.co.za
For more stories like this one, be sure to buy the Sowetan newspaper from Mondays to Fridays
Mom made to sleep with her dead baby - nurses told her morgue was closed
A WOMAN suffered terrible trauma at the hands of nurses when she had to sleep holding the body of her stillborn baby after negligence allegedly caused its death.
"They told me to sleep there with my dead baby," Yolanda Rakhajane from Vanderbijlpark in the Vaal said. The harrowing experience happened at Kopanong Hospital in Vereeniging.
She was at the hospital for four days before giving birth to the baby at about 9.30pm on Saturday. The baby had died earlier in the day.
Nurses wiped the body clean with paper towels and handed it back to her. She fell asleep with the dead baby in her arms.
When she woke up, Rakhajane told the nurses to take the body away, but she was told the morgue was closed on weekends.
The baby's body was then wrapped in plastic, covered in a blanket and placed in a trolley near her bed.
She said three other babies and a mother died through negligence at the hospital while she was there.
Her trauma started on August 29 when she went to the hospital with a referral letter from a gynaecologist for the hospital to induce labour.
But she was sent back to fetch pictures of a sonar done when she was three months pregnant.
The average duration of a pregnancy is 40 weeks, but Rakhajane was already 43 weeks pregnant.
When Rakhajane returned on Wednesday last week, she was admitted but told there were no beds in the labour ward. On Thursday, she started having contractions.
"When I told them [the nurses] I was having contractions, they said I didn't look like someone who was having contractions. They said they weren't going to entertain my pain."
Rakhajane said a doctor checked her on Friday morning. Later that day, her water broke.
She was taken to a labour ward early in the evening, where she said she overheard one of the nurses tell her colleagues that they should not worry about her as she was not yet ready to give birth.
"[The following day], the doctor confirmed that I was in labour but dilating slowly," she said.
Staff checked for her baby's heartbeat, which was present, and then put her on an antibiotics drip. After that, she was supposed to have a drip which would induce labour.
Before that could happen, she was transferred to the antenatal unit to do sonar scans to check for the baby's heartbeat. It was then discovered that the baby was dead.
She delivered a baby boy weighing 4.6kg through natural birth although large babies are generally born through Caesarean section.
The baby's grieving father, Pule Thinane, said he was even denied access to the ward to support his partner during labour.
When the couple's family protested and threatened to sue the hospital, the nurses "told me to calm down as suing the hospital wouldn't bring back my baby", Rakhajane said.
Gauteng health department spokesman Prince Hamnca said: "Hospital management is arranging a meeting with the family so they can raise their concerns.
"Post this meeting, an investigation into the allegations will be conducted and the family will be informed of the outcome."
ndabezithat@timesmedia.co.za
For more stories like this one, be sure to buy the Sowetan newspaper from Mondays to Fridays
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