UPDATE: DA demands north clinic suspend nurse in ‘missing baby’ case
The mother said her baby was placed in a plastic bag, even though she had seen it was breathing.
The DA has called for the suspension of the nurse in charge of a Hammanskraal clinic where a newborn allegedly went missing last month.
The party led a protest march at the Refentse Clinic on Friday to demand that “the nurse in charge be suspended until an investigation into her involvement in the case of the missing baby is concluded”.
DA Gauteng North chairperson Abel Tay said the demand arose from reports that a patient at the clinic, Gloria Mhlongo, had allegedly been told by a nurse that her newborn baby had died.
“Shortly after her son was born, the sister in charge at the clinic took him away, saying she was going to bathe him. Later when Mhlongo asked after her baby, the sister told her he had died,” Tau said.
In a voice note, supplied by the party, Mhlongo, in vernacular, said: “They said the baby is dead, but they did not show me the body.”
She said her baby was placed in a plastic bag, even though she had seen it was breathing.
“I want the corpse,” she concluded.
Hammanskraal police, however, have said Mhlongo knew what had happened to the baby.
“The clinic said she delivered the foetus at 20 weeks and she [Mhlongo] had tampered with the pregnancy,” said police spokesman Constable Herman Moremi.
Moremi said the hospital told police the baby was born dead.
“The clinic also said it could not give Mhlongo the baby (foetus) as it had to be discarded,” he said, adding the clinic had shown the police where Mhlongo had signed the body bag.
It was initially alleged the baby was abducted at the clinic, a claim denied by Tshwane district health service chief director Mothomone Pitsi.
“There was no newborn baby abducted at the hospital,” he said earlier this month
“The matter is being investigated to verify what happened.”
According to the Health Tissue Authority’s (HTA) guidance on the disposal of remains following pregnancy loss or termination, issued in 2015, the mother should always be made aware of the options for disposal.
“She should be given verbal or written information about the options, given the opportunity to discuss them, and supported in an individual and sensitive manner to ensure that she can make a decision that is right for her.”
The information should, according to the HTA, include an explanation of, among others, how the remains will be disposed of.
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https://rekordnorth.co.za/129355/north-clinic-denies-baby-theft/
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