Riot Hlatshwayo
Riot Hlatshwayo
A newly born baby girl survived more than 10 hours of a cold and wet night under a rubbish bin with a brick placed on top of it.
This after her mother tried to conceal her birth and hid her under the dustbin turned upside down.
The baby, who was named Nhlanhla (fortunate) by nurses, was born at Kumani village near Thulamahashe in Mpumalanga on Saturday at about 8pm.
A nurse who attended to the baby said it was a miracle that she survived on such a rainy night.
"When we admitted her, her temperature was below 35 degrees and she was hypothermic. She could have frozen to death.
"We put her in an incubator because she had suffered severe cold," she said.
The baby's 22-year-old mother, Tinyiko Khoza, allegedly hid her under the bin inside an incomplete house.
She then told her friend, Iris Mabunda, that she had fallen on her stomach and claimed she might have had a miscarriage.
"She was bleeding and we all believed she really had a miscarriage," said Mabunda yesterday.
Family members rushed Khoza to Thulamahashe Health Centre where she was immediately transferred to Mapulaneng Hospital in Bushbuckridge, about 40km away.
The family went home and decided to sleep as they could only clean up where Khoza had bled the following morning because it was too dark when they returned home.
"We don't have electricity, so the only time we could clean up the mess was in the morning," said Gladys Mabunda, Khoza's mother.
She said while they were cleaning up the blood at about 5am, Norah Mabunda, a relative who came to help, heard a faint sound like that of a bleating goat.
"I looked under the bin with a brick on top of it and discovered the naked child. Her umbilical cord had not been tied," said Mabunda.
She bathed the child before taking her to Thulamahashe Health Centre where nurses attended to the baby before she was also transferred to Mapulaneng Hospital.
But, on hearing that the baby had been saved, the mother sai d: "I love my child, please ask the police not to arrest me because I thought the child had died. I did not mean to hurt her."
Police have ordered nurses at the hospital to inform them as soon as the mother and child are discharged so they can charge her.
Social workers who refused to talk to Sowetan were speaking to Khoza when we arrived at the hospital yesterday.
baby stuffed under dustbin
Riot Hlatshwayo
Riot Hlatshwayo
A newly born baby girl survived more than 10 hours of a cold and wet night under a rubbish bin with a brick placed on top of it.
This after her mother tried to conceal her birth and hid her under the dustbin turned upside down.
The baby, who was named Nhlanhla (fortunate) by nurses, was born at Kumani village near Thulamahashe in Mpumalanga on Saturday at about 8pm.
A nurse who attended to the baby said it was a miracle that she survived on such a rainy night.
"When we admitted her, her temperature was below 35 degrees and she was hypothermic. She could have frozen to death.
"We put her in an incubator because she had suffered severe cold," she said.
The baby's 22-year-old mother, Tinyiko Khoza, allegedly hid her under the bin inside an incomplete house.
She then told her friend, Iris Mabunda, that she had fallen on her stomach and claimed she might have had a miscarriage.
"She was bleeding and we all believed she really had a miscarriage," said Mabunda yesterday.
Family members rushed Khoza to Thulamahashe Health Centre where she was immediately transferred to Mapulaneng Hospital in Bushbuckridge, about 40km away.
The family went home and decided to sleep as they could only clean up where Khoza had bled the following morning because it was too dark when they returned home.
"We don't have electricity, so the only time we could clean up the mess was in the morning," said Gladys Mabunda, Khoza's mother.
She said while they were cleaning up the blood at about 5am, Norah Mabunda, a relative who came to help, heard a faint sound like that of a bleating goat.
"I looked under the bin with a brick on top of it and discovered the naked child. Her umbilical cord had not been tied," said Mabunda.
She bathed the child before taking her to Thulamahashe Health Centre where nurses attended to the baby before she was also transferred to Mapulaneng Hospital.
But, on hearing that the baby had been saved, the mother sai d: "I love my child, please ask the police not to arrest me because I thought the child had died. I did not mean to hurt her."
Police have ordered nurses at the hospital to inform them as soon as the mother and child are discharged so they can charge her.
Social workers who refused to talk to Sowetan were speaking to Khoza when we arrived at the hospital yesterday.
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