The mother of a baby born with severe brain damage testified last Friday that she was taken to the wrong hospital by her now deregistered midwife after multiple requests to go to a private hospital of her choice during her difficult labour were ignored.
Yolande Maritz Fouche allegedly took the woman to the state Tshwane District Hospital instead of Netcare Montana Hospital, and while there, Fouche allegedly assisted in the delivery of another baby while her own patient awaited assistance from doctors.
The mother said Fouche had ignored her numerous pleas to be taken to the private hospital of choice, instead transferring her to the public hospital where her child was eventually born with severe brain damage.
The mother, referred to as CR in court papers, whose son was diagnosed with cerebral palsy after his birth in 2019, told the Gauteng High Court that she, her ex-husband and her mother repeatedly asked that she be taken to the hospital during her labour at Fouche’s You & Me Birthing Centre, opened in 2009.
News24 reports that Fouche is charged with the negligent mishandling of this and other births that resulted in several children being born with disabilities and one child dying nine days after birth.
CR testified: “She left the room to make a call. She then stated the (private) hospital was requesting R52 000. We confirmed and accepted the terms.”
However, said the woman, she was shocked when the ambulance arrived at Tshwane District Hospital instead of Netcare Montana Hospital.
She said she had told Fouche of her preferred hospital on the day of the labour.
Helped neighbour
“Fouche and I waited a while in the labour room. She then popped over to the patient next to me. She assisted the mom. Gave her a few words of encouragement. Told her how to push, and her baby was born,” she told state advocate Jennifer Cronje.
Judge Mokine Mosopa asked if any medical staff had been present or authorised Fouche’s involvement. CR said there were “no medically trained people there”. About two hours after her arrival at the hospital, CR’s son was born via Caesarean section.
CR claims a doctor said her swollen cervix and that she was only 7cm dilated made a natural birth impossible.
She also said Fouche had believed she was fully dilated and did not seem “bothered” by this new information.
Before her eventual hospitalisation, CR and her mother had reportedly asked, multiple times, to be sent to the hospital, but their requests were rejected, with the midwife allegedly saying: “No, you are too far along; no hospital would accept you.”
The state has charged Fouche with assault for not realising that CR’s pregnancy required a medical specialist, and denying the family’s requests to transfer CR to a hospital.
Her son was born “blue and unresponsive” with “a bruise over his nose and eye”, CR said.
The now five-year-old child had a brain bleed during birth and has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, focal epilepsy and cortical visual impairment, which CR explained means “the brain does not communicate with the eyes”.
“He is partially blind.”
Fouche’s defence, Advocate Nico Raubenheimer, denied many of the allegations, claiming she would have honoured hospital transfer requests and that complications during the birth were unforeseeable.
Fouche’s version is that CR’s baby had unexpectedly turned while in the womb, making it a medical emergency, which necessitated referring CR to a hospital.
Allegedly, the contract signed by CR when requesting Fouche’s services stated that if an emergency occurred, she would be transferred to Steve Biko Academic Hospital, but CR denies this.
Raubenheimer said when Fouche called Steve Biko Academic Hospital, the staff there diverted her to Tshwane District Hospital as the academic hospital was too full to accommodate the emergency C-section.
CR was transported to Tshwane District Hospital with an ambulance that was on site. She saw her son only once before he was transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit at Steve Biko Academic Hospital for additional monitoring.
She remained in Tshwane District Hospital for treatment of her nausea and vomiting after the birth.
Dose of Cytotec
A third family, whose baby died nine days after he was born – allegedly due to Fouche’s negligence – was also due to take the stand this week after the matter was adjourned to give the prosecution time to through various pictures and videos which were taken during the birthing process.
The prosecution told the judge it had consulted with the family on Sunday and they were unaware of the pictures and videos before then.
IOL reports that they asked to go through this potential evidence to see what can be used.
Fouche and her legal team will then have access to the potential evidence to decide whether they will object to it being handed to court as exhibits.
The state is claiming Fouche’s negligent actions caused the death of the Von Kloeg baby, who died later at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital, and has also alleged that the former midwife assaulted the baby’s mother by dosing water with the medication Cytotec and telling her to drink it before the birth.
Cytotec is used to induce uterine contractions to hasten the labour process.
Fouche is accused of failing to identify that at 30 weeks, the unborn baby showed signs of growth restriction as well as the warning signs of decreased foetal movement, as reported to her by the expectant mother during two ante-natal visits.
According to the prosecution, Fouche should have referred the woman to a doctor at that stage.
The baby was eventually born at Fouche’s home clinic. Allegedly, when the infant emerged – very tiny and blue and did not cry or breathe properly – despite the parents’ pleas to be taken to hospital at that point, Fouche still refused.
According to the prosecution, she was aware that the baby was in a critical condition.
The mother and newborn were eventually transferred to the hospital, but the baby died a few days later.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Midwife blames baby’s cerebral palsy on mother’s infection
Pretoria midwife faces another baby brain damage claim