Baby dies due to alleged negligence by hospital staff
Police are awaiting the results of the post-mortem on a White River toddler, whose parents are of the opinion that she died because of neglect by Themba Hospital staff.
Police are awaiting the results of the post-mortem on a White River toddler, whose parents are of the opinion that she died because of neglect by Themba Hospital staff.
Angel Harnols (2) died in the early hours of last Sunday morning. A police detective has confirmed that they are investigating the death.
According to relatives her mother, Ms Monica Stolz, slept in another room in the hospital as she was apparently not allowed to stay with her daughter the night she died.
The staff then called her in at about 23:00 to see her child and then told her to leave as they were apparently going to give her an injection, 30 minutes later they called her again to tell her the tragic news.
Relatives said there had been an accident at their home in White River on May 14, when Angel apparently accidentally fell into hot water. Her mom then immediately called emergency services which rushed Angel to Themba Hospital.
“She was recovering nicely and although the burns were bad, they were not third degree. But the nurses treated us horribly, telling us we were spoiling her because we brought our own nappies for her after we noticed that her bottom was very red.”
The family alleged they saw the nurses manhandle Angel on numerous occasions, so they requested the treating doctor to transfer her to Sabie Hospital as they feared for her safety. “He refused and told us Themba was the best hospital in the province.”
They also stated that at one time, the doctor postponed an operation due to a lack of water and stated it was because equipment in the theatre was dirty. “They later did the operation and she was also recovering nicely from that.”
On the day in question, the mother apparently witnessed the nurses forcing tubes up the toddler’s nose, which then started to bleed. “That is when they told me to leave and I waited in another room the whole night until then they came to tell me my baby was dead,” said the traumatised parent.
At the time of going to press, the Mpumalanga Health Department spokesman, Mr Dumisani Malamule, stated upon receiving the allegations, that a child admitted to Themba Hospital had allegedly died because of the negligence of the staff. The department immediately instituted an investigation into the matter.
“The preliminary investigation reveals that the allegation levelled against the staff is not true as there was no negligence on the part of the hospital staff as alleged.”
According to Malamule, the preliminary report of the hospital had revealed that the child had died an unnatural death, however, a post-mortem would be conducted to determine the real cause of death.
He said, however, that the investigation did reveal that some of the nurses had made disparaging remarks to the parents. “The department has since issued them with written warnings.”
Malumale said their department had an open-door policy and any member of the public who had been mistreated by any staff member in the hospital should immediately report the matter to the department.
“Any official found to be on the wrong side of the law will be dealt with accordingly.”
