Dora Nginza a symbol of broken health system

The devastating response given to a grandmother who went to Dora Nginza Hospital to collect the remains of her daughter’s newborn baby is just cruel.

She was told that the bins had already been emptied. It is difficult to imagine a more dehumanising answer.

Whatever the protocols, the handling of this case reflects a shocking lack of compassion.

A baby’s remains are not refuse. A grieving mother is not an inconvenience.

It is another damning indictment of a health system that has lost its humanity.

More and more families are speaking out because of the neglect, indifference and cruelty in Nelson Mandela Bay's public hospitals.

This time it is Kimone Mutsie, 20, who was just 27 weeks pregnant when she went into premature labour on July 5.

Mutsie claims she was left bleeding for hours on a hospital bench, given little medical assistance and later told her baby had died despite allegedly hearing the infant cry at birth.

“I was told my child died ages ago inside my womb and that the cry I heard was the child of another woman.

“I don’t believe this because the other women with me were still in labour, having contractions when I was giving birth.

“All I was told was they are sorry for my loss,” she said.

Her child’s body was later discarded.

Her mother, Rose, went to collect the child’s remains on July 7, but she was not given a body.

“When we went to collect the body, the superintendent said the body was binned, which had been emptied.”

A North Gauteng High Court ruling in 2021 declared that in the event of a loss of pregnancy other than stillbirth, the bereaved parent or parents had the right to bury the dead foetus, if they elected to do so.

Dora Nginza Hospital is quickly becoming a symbol of all that is broken in the public health system.

Yes, staff are overburdened. But being overworked cannot erase the trauma inflicted on patients daily, who arrive in their most vulnerable hour.

The Herald