The Department of Health in Limpopo denies any negligence, following the death of an unborn baby. This follows claims by Ms Norah Hlungwani (37), who believes that a doctor at the LTT Memorial Hospital prescribed the 'wrong medication', which eventually caused her to give birth to a stillborn child.
Hlungwani, who is a resident of Tshiozwi in the Sinthumule area, was transferred to LTT Memorial Hospital from Madombidzha Clinic on 12 March. She claimed that a doctor at the hospital merely visually examined her and told her the unborn baby had not grown fully. “He administered two injections and said they were meant to delay 'child delivery', so that the child may grow to its full size,” said a weeping Hlungwani. “He said I would deliver on 27 March and not on my initial date of 16 March.”
On 14 March, Hlungwani was rushed to the Madombidzha Clinic, where she gave birth to a stillborn baby girl.
Ms Hlungwani confronted the doctor who had prescribed the medication to 'delay birth'. “He acknowledged to me and my husband that he had wrongfully given me the medication, after examining me incorrectly,” she wept. “He then apologised to us. He said we must forgive him.”
Hlungwani and her husband, Mr Peter Lithole (47), felt that the doctor must compensate them. “He said he was poor and that we must sue the State,” she explained. “Then we requested to view my file, so that we could study the circumstances around my child's death first.” According to Hlungwnai, a female official then collected the file from the records department and hid it.
The Department of Health's provincial spokesperson, Mr Macks Lesufi, said, however, that Ms Hlungwani had been properly examined by a doctor and the medication prescribed was to treat a separate condition that was discovered during the examination. “The insinuation perpetuated by the client is refuted with the contempt it deserves,” he said.
Lesufi stated that the injections that Hlungwani claimed she was given to delay labour refered to an antibiotic which was given intravenously and steroids which were administered to ensure that even if birth occured before the expected term, the child might breath normally. “[The medication] was in no way related to her false labour alarm,” he said.
The department denied claims that the client’s attending doctor “had at any stage had an interaction with the client where he allegedly acknowledged prescribing the wrong medication, let alone declared poverty and advised the client to sue the department and the provincial department of health”.
Lesufi added that Hlungwani's file was never at the hospital in the first place. “Since she delivered at Madombidzha Clinic, there was no way that her file could be at the hospital,” he said.
However, a weeping Hlungwani said: “I am hurt deeply. All that the department is saying is false and they are only protecting the State and their doctor. How did I have the doctor's mobile phone numbers and his names? I stand by my story.”
