Baby dies after nurses send granny back home

The parents of a 19-month-old baby are still aggrieved after baby Mulalo Prince Mulaudzi died after nurses at the Khakhu clinic refused to help him last Thursday.

Mr Mashudu Mulaudzi, the child's father, has decided to take the matter to the health department. “My wife and I work in Gauteng, and when news about my baby's death reached us, I knew it was my death,” he said. “The MEC of health must visit Khakhu clinic and warn the staff about negligence or else many people are still going to die. We know that the clinic is open 24 hours per day.”

Mashadu had last seen his son only a week before, when he brought him some food, clothes and a teddy bear. “I was selecting some CDs to play on my DVD player and Mulalo was scratching some of them on the floor, like children normally do,” he remembered the last moments with his son. “Now I had to receive a call from home informing me about my son's death!”

The child's guardian and grandmother, Vho-Reginah Mulaudzi, rushed Mulalo to the local clinic after she noticed that he had a high fever and was vomiting. She said that she had arrived at the clinic at around 14:00 on 5 October. One of the nurses on duty told her that there were only three nurses and that they were helping a woman in labour, she added.

“She could see with her own eyes that my grandson was in much pain,” said Vho-Reginah. “What hurt me most was the fact that the nurse who spoke with me was doing nothing herself.” She maintained that she had to go back home with her unattended grandson, after three painful hours of waiting for nothing. “I was told to come back the next morning,” she wept.

Vho-Reginah had to stay awake all night long, staring at baby Mulalo, who was retching painfully. The following morning at 07:30, she went to the clinic and was forced to join a long queue. “They said that they would only start seeing patients at 08:00,” she explained. “Then I lost it and shouted at them that the child needed immediate medical attention.”

The nurses then took the baby from her and went into the consulting room. “They finally put some drips on him, and then they could see that it was not a joke, that Mulalo was sick,” she said.

When the nurses informed her at around 09:00 that Mulalo had died, Vho-Reginah fainted. “I didn't know how I would face my son and tell him that his child had died,” she said.

Mulalo's mother, Mumsy, said that the clinic's attitude towards patients and their laziness had caused her son's death. “I am without words about this whole issue,” she added.

The spokesperson of the Department of Health's, Ms Adele van der Linde, said that the department would launch a full investigation into the matter to establish what had led to the incident. “If we find negligence to be a factor, we will not hesitate to act as a department,” Van der Linde said. “Our people deserve the best health care possible.”

She then requested all patients who receive bad service at hospitals, clinics and EMS to make use of the MEC's Hotline number (0800 91 91 91) to direct their complaints or requests. The number currently operates during office hours (7:30 to 16:30).

Mualo was buried at the back of his parents' house last Monday.

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Date:18 October 2013

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

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