The Eastern Cape Health Department has been urged by an NGO, the Passionate Unlimited Peers in Action (Pupa), to revoke a nurse’s licence after allegations that he violated the rights of a patient, taking photos of her stillborn baby and then telling her friend to “take this thing” and “show it to friends”.
The patient, who on 26 February was treated at a community health care centre in the Alfred Nzo District of the Eastern Cape, accused Luyolo Somhlahlo of violating her rights to health care and dignity, reports The Sunday Independent.
She said after waking up early that morning with excruciating stomach pain, she was taken to the medical facility by a friend, where Somhlahlo allegedly met them with hostility.
In her statement, the woman (23) who was pregnant at the time, wrote. “On 25 February, I felt pain … but thought it was from the healed scar of my previous Caesarean … .
“The next morning, around 4am, I went to the toilet still in pain.” While there, she began screaming from the pain and called her flatmate for help.
The screams were so loud a neighbour heard the noise, and the two women asked him to drive them to clinic.
“When we got there, there was a female nurse and two male nurses inside the clinic. I told them I was four months’ pregnant.
“One of the males said I must get on the bed and open my legs, then he inserted a finger, said I was indeed pregnant and that the pain …was due to the water coming out. He inserted his finger again, and water came out.” She said she was asked to lift her shirt to check if she were pregnant.
“I was crying, and he said I should not make a noise, but I told him it was painful.
“He said I must push, and I tried to push for a while, but he complained I was wasting their time because they had other patients,” she said.
Shortly afterwards she delivered a still-born baby. Somhlahlo allegedly urged her to wipe the blood from the face of the dead child, and despite the trauma, she felt obliged to follow his instructions.
“He then said I was disrespecting him. Soon afterwards, the female nurse returned with an injection … to stop the bleeding. The third person, the other male nurse, had not been doing anything. After the injection, the other male asked me to wake up and see this thing I had just given birth to and asked about the neighbour who had brought me to the clinic. It must have been around 5.45am. He then went outside to call my housemate,” she said.
“He asked who should be called, and I told them to call my neighbour. This nurse … took my phone and took a photo of the baby. He told me to lie on my back so that he could clean me, and then cut the umbilical.”
She was then instructed to get off the bed and sit on a chair. One of the nurses took the lifeless foetus and placed it in a red plastic bag.
Somhlahlo gave her an injection and asked the whereabouts of the people who had accompanied her.
Other nurses were present when Somhlahlo told her housemate to come and take “this thing” and show it to their friends.
On their way home, “my housemate called my manager at work and, later on, a social worker who both came to my house”, she said.
All the way home, “the foetus was carried by me … we waited until around 4 or 5 in the afternoon before burying the body in the garden”.
Pupa executive director Khanyisa Dunjwa said the victim was in pain, distraught, hurt, frustrated, and did not know what to do with the foetus.
She said the organisation would continue to offer psychosocial support to both young women and advocated that the nurse be punished for his wrongdoings.
Pupa has since lodged a formal complaint with the Eastern Cape Department of Health.
“The department has acted swiftly. An investigation started on 27 February, and the victim and her friend gave statements on 2 March to investigators. We need all health providers to practise the Batho Pele principles, and would like the perpetrator removed from the system because his actions were inhumane and degrading,” said Dunjwa.
The department said the nurse in question had been removed from the maternity ward and health centre until the investigation had been concluded.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Nurse on misconduct charges for shaming patient who miscarried
Eastern Cape’s ‘deadly’ incompetence and lack of capacity
Doctors and nurse on ‘leave’ following video of patient abuse