Hospital lost body of baby
2003-08-09 22:05
Johannesburg - A family whose baby died in a government hospital cannot bury her because the hospital has lost the body of the child.
Johannes Khalo, 39, of Limpopo province, says he has accepted the death of his baby, Mpho, but cannot live with the fact that he has not buried her.
Little Mpho's corpse was lost by the Ga-Rankuwa hospital 15 months ago.
Khalo says the baby was admitted to the hospital in February last year on transfer from Mankweng hospital in Limpopo, where she was born.
The baby was 10 days old and stayed at the Ga-Rankuwa hospital for 16 days before she was certified dead on March 12 last year.
The family is at its wit's end about the matter following numerous futile attempts to get an explanation from the hospital.
Khalo says the family cannot lay the matter to rest as they have cultural obligations to perform rites in respect of their daughter's death.
"How can the soul of my daughter rest in peace if the body has not been buried? My ancestors will never forgive me for deserting my own blood.
"There just has to be a way of getting Mpho's body back. This issue has caused me sleepless nights and misery. Can somebody please tell me what happened to the body?" a tearful Khalo said.
He says it was his wife who first discovered that Mpho had passed away in ward 24 after undergoing a blood transfusion at the hospital.
Nurses were alerted and according to Khalo his wife was given an option to either arrange her own transport to take the corpse home or to leave matters to the hospital.
"How I wish we had arranged our own transport because none of this would have happened," says Khalo.
He says nurses on duty that night had assured him the body would be transferred to the nearest hospital, Mankweng, the next day as soon as the paper work was done.
Fifteen months later, Khalo is still waiting for the "paper work" to be completed. He had numerous meetings with the hospital's personnel but to no avail. Khalo is now appealing to anyone with information to come forward.
The acting chief executive officer of Ga-Rankuwa hospital, Dr Claude Mondzanga, said he is not aware of the case but has promised to investigate.
"There is little I can say except that I will investigate," he said.