Parents lay blame for twin’s death on hospital

LYDENBURG – A mother and father had to watch helplessly as their son, who was born prematurely, died after the staff at Lydenburg Hospital allegedly ignored their plea for medical assistance.

Mr Cobus Naudé’s (29) wife, Hyletta (29) was 28 weeks pregnant with identical twin boys when her water broke on

September 28. Her husband took her to Lydenburg Hospital.

“I was admitted and was to hospital for a week. I didn’t receive any drip and was only given pills. I am not sure what they were for. I bled the entire time and was in a lot of pain. Every time I told the staff about it, they said that it was on account of an apparent infection. On October 5, I started to get contractions and went into labour,” Hyletta said.

Cobus requested the hospital to arrange an ambulance for his wife to be transported to Rob Ferreira Hospital.

“I asked them several times to organise an ambulance since this hospital does not have a neonatal ICU and the twins were premature.

“I even arranged with a private ambulance to take Hyletta to Mbombela. All I needed was a consent from any doctor at Lydenburg Hospital, but even this request fell on deaf ears,” he said.

When Hyletta started to dilate, Cobus was given the option of driving to Rob Ferreira or having the babies delivered at Lydenburg Hospital.

“I couldn’t drive with Hyletta already being five centimetres dilated. What if she gave birth en route? I am not a doctor. I again urged them to please get an ambulance to help my wife and babies to get to Mbombela as soon as possible.”

On account of her dilation and with no news of an ambulance, Hyletta was prepared for an emergency Caesarean section as both babies were in a breech position. Because she had already had two Caesareans in the past, she was at risk of tearing or developing complications during normal birth.

Shortly after, with no doctor in sight, Hyletta gave birth to Markus on her hospital bed. The doctor apparently only showed up when Marius was born a few minutes later.

Markus weighed 1,02 kilograms and Marius 1,2 kilograms. Both babies were placed in incubators.

Again Cobus asked about an available ambulance. Four hours later with still no ambulance in sight, a nurse called the couple and said that their baby was dying.

“We were standing in front of the incubator, pleading with them to help our baby. One nurse just raised her shoulders. Another staff member, presumably a doctor, simply walked out of the ward. We couldn’t even put our hands in the incubator. We had to witness our baby take his last breath. We saw Markus die. He was literally left to die.”

Both babies sustained severe bruising from having being delivered while in a breech position.

Right after Markus died, an ambulance arrived. “I didn’t have time to say goodbye to Markus. I was loaded into the ambulance with Marius and we were taken to Rob Ferreira. I wasn’t even discharged.”

While his wife and son were transported to Mbombela, Cobus was still at the hospital arranging with Martins Funerals for the removal of Markus’ body.

“I went outside and when I returned, I found that they had wrapped his body in a blanket and covered it with plastic, similar to Glad wrap.”

Markus was cremated on October 10.

The couple has three older sons, aged six, seven and 11.

“Our family needs trauma counselling but at the moment we can’t afford it. I work as a contractor and we don’t have the funds. We have been travelling to and from Mbombela for a month. At times, Hyletta and I can’t even afford to eat.”

The couple is in the process of taking legal action against Lydenburg Hospital.

They, however, are grateful to the staff at Rob Ferreira for its service and assistance with little Marius. He is still in hospital, but is stable.

The newspaper sent queries to the Mpumalanga Department of Health’s spokesman, Mr Dumisani Malamule, who confirmed receipt thereof.

Malamule said that a response would be given regarding the allegations, but at the time of going to press no response had been received.