The family of a baby who died a day after she was born outside a clinic in Musina wants the Department of Health in Limpopo to pay for its alleged negligence, according to a report The Citizen. The family wants the department, under MEC Phophi Ramathuba, to pay them millions of rands for criminal negligence. A case of culpable homicide has also been opened against a nurse who allegedly refused to help the pregnant woman to deliver the baby. The woman was then forced to deliver the baby outside the gates of Madimbo Clinic in Musina. Both the mother and the baby were transferred to Vhufulwi Hospital outside Thohoyandou, where the baby died two days later.
The baby’s grandmother, Christina Ndou, accused the department of negligence and said it was responsible for the death of her granddaughter. Ndou claimed that during the delivery outside the clinic, the baby fell from the mother’s body onto the ground, sustaining visible head and facial injuries. The department confirmed a nurse who was supposed to attend to the mother during delivery has been suspended. The department said the clinic in which the baby was born was not operating on a 24-hour basis. But that it was normal procedure that in cases of emergency, nurses were supposed to help patients when they arrived at the facility. The DA laid criminal charges against the department and the nurse at the center of the controversy.
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