…as family lodges
complaint over loss of baby

Beatific
Gumbwanda

CHIREDZI
–
Negligent nurses at Chiredzi General Hospital recently caused the death of a
newly-born baby after they reportedly abandoned the mother as she was about to
give birth, TellZim News has learnt.

The
Chimene family has since lodged a complainant with the hospital administration
after a family member, Dorcus Zvenyika, gave birth to a baby boy all by herself
on the floor.

The
nurses, who were under the supervision of one Sister Mutingwende, are said to
have ignored her travails.

The
nurses were reportedly notified that the woman was about to deliver but they
ignored, and the woman’s baby fell headfirst onto the floor and died moments
later.

Zvenyika’s
case is said to be just but a tip of the iceberg of the despicable abuses that
patients at the hospital suffer at the hands of staff members.

The
abuse and neglect is said to be more pronounced in the maternity ward where
labouring women need the most care.

A
close source said labouring women are often not given any assistance when they
want to visit the toilets while others are left to deliver on the floor if the
nurses consider the women to be exaggerating the pain of their labour.

“Yes,
we lost a baby at the hospital. We have talked with hospital administration and
nurses who were on duty have been summoned. It is quite fortunate that the
mother herself did not die in labour,” said family spokesperson Josiah Chimene,
who is brother to Zvenyika’s husband Prince Chimene.

Chiredzi
Medical Superintendent, David Tarumbwa said he was on study leave but will have
to check with the hospital if the case was reported.

“I
am glad that this case has names and the time when it happened. We can easily
trace and investigate the issue. I will have to check with the administration
if the case was reported,” said Tarumbwa.

Several
cases of expectant mothers being left alone to deliver their babies on the
floor are said to be under investigation at the hospital.

Bernadette
Chipembere, a community activist, said she had eyewitness accounts of sheer
neglect at the hospital.

“This
is going out of hand. I saw members of the Chimene family crying while standing
at the hospital’s main entrance. I also once assisted a woman who had been abandoned
outside of the ward and I later learnt that she was made to give birth on the
floor,” said Chipembere.

She
blamed the rot partly on government’s failure to adequately fund hospitals and
for its lack of concern for the welfare of poor people who are the most dependent
on the public health system.

 “I can also blame the government for this rot.
Only two nurses are left to attend more than 45 pregnant women on delivery
beds, and there are also few beds at the hospital. Nurses are demoralised
because their efforts are not being sufficiently rewarded. They have to do with
inadequate drugs and equipment,” she said.

Moses Ziyambi

MASVINGO – Over US$10 000 need to be raised urgently to get to an
India hospital a local two-months-old baby who was born with a rare heart
condition, TellZim News can reveal.

Born at Makurira Memorial Clinic,
Christy Tanyara was soon to be diagnosed with an arterial septal defect known
clinically as truncus arteriosus.

This basically means that the
walls that separate the two chambers of the heart did not adequately form,
leading to an unhealthy mix up of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood, with the
pulmonary veins draining into the left atrium.

The doctor who examined her at
Diagnostic Heart Centre in Harare recommended surgery to avoid heart failure.

In Zimbabwe, there are neither
the skills nor the equipment needed to conduct the kind of surgical operation
that needs to be done.

Christy’s parents managed to get
a quotation from The Heart Centre hospital in Bengaluru, India, which shows
that US10 250 is required to perform an intra-cardiac repair operation. This
excludes travel and accommodation costs for the parents as well as the child’s additional
hospital stay beyond the estimated number of days.

Christy’s parents Tafadzwa
Tanyara and Bridgeter Wapwanyika are low income earners and have no capacity to
raise the money on their own.

“We have enlisted the services of
some concerned people to set up a GoFundMe account from overseas but we are
also looking forward to local people helping us because the amount of money we
seek needs everybody to be involved. We have therefore opened bank accounts for
the convenience of locals who want to help,” said Christy’s father Tafadzwa.

The baby’s mother, Bridgeter said
she will know no real rest until her baby gets the live-saving heart surgery
she needs.

”It has been a difficult two
months for us. We do not have peace of mind but we have hope that generous
people out there will help us give Christy the health she needs to lead a
normal life,” she said.

Those willing to donate can do so
via Tafadzwa Tanyara’s Steward Bank Masvingo Branch Account Number 1007714404
or Bridgeta Wapwanyika’s FBC Bank foreign currency Nostro Account Number
0455113030291.

The couple can be contacted on +263
772 383 405 / +263 776 685 576.