Baby fed HIV-tainted milk

2006-09-04 07:27

Maike Currie

Port Elizabeth - A young mother's worst fears came true when she found that her baby was swapped with another woman's baby at Dora Nginza Hospital.

But her ordeal was not over once the child was found. She learnt that her first-born might be HIV-positive after she was breastfed by a woman with HIV.

Liezel Jacobs, 18, cried as she told how a doctor from the paediatric unit at this hospital gave her the shocking news on Saturday morning.

According to the doctor, staff had got her baby daughter's name tag mixed up with that of another baby that had been born on the same day.

Jacobs said she suspected something was amiss on Friday when one of the nursing sisters took blood samples from her. "She didn't want to say why she needed the blood, but asked me a lot of strange questions about my baby's identity."

'What will we do?'

Jacobs was only informed about the "mistake" by the doctor on Saturday. "The doctor told me that they had given my baby to another woman to breastfeed, and that woman had Aids."

"He said they had given my child an antiviral drug, but also had to do blood tests to determine whether she had contracted Aids."

"He said he was very sorry, he didn't know how it could have happened." Jacobs gave birth by Caesarean section on Thursday. The "wrong mother" also gave birth by Caesarean on the same day.

"The doctor was very angry about what had happened. He told me it was not the first time such a thing had happened at the Dora either."

After being informed about her baby, Jacobs was moved to a private ward, which she shares with only one other mother.

She said one of the nursing sisters fetched her file on Saturday evening. She found out on Sunday that the file had disappeared, and nobody had since been able to tell her what had happened to the file.

"I asked one of the nurses at the paediatric unit about my baby's test results on Sunday. She said a 'quick test' indicated that my baby tested negative, but that they were still waiting for the laboratory test."

Meanwhile her daughter was still in the incubator in the Dora Nginza paediatric unit, right next to the baby she had been swapped with. This baby's mother subsequently went missing.

Jacobs's sister, Heidi Smith, supported her at the hospital on Sunday.

"It was Dora's mistake and now they are treating her as if she had done something wrong. What will we do if her baby has Aids? All because the hospital was negligent?"

Dr Aydin Vehbi, superintendent at the hospital, said on Sunday he was aware of the incident, but didn't want to comment.

"The incident was brought to my attention on Friday. We are investigating and I cannot say anything before I know how it had happened."

Mzukisi Ndara, communications director for the Eastern Cape health department, said he also didn't know how it was possible that something like this could happen.

- Die Burger