A woman whose baby died after she went into premature labour at Sebokeng Hospital is instigating legal action against Gauteng Health, saying nurses had simply told her to “stop making a noise” when she begged for help.
Nokwanda Mokoena (25) was in her second trimester of a pregnancy planned by her and her partner, and expecting a boy, when she experienced what the hospital described as an “inevitable miscarriage”.
She told TimesLIVE Premium that on 11 June she had felt something was wrong. She went to Sebokeng Hospital where she was checked by nurses and “they told me my womb was open”.
“They said they would admit me…the doctor came and did a check-up and a sonar, which showed I was 24 weeks and five days’ pregnant.”
Mokoena was moved to the maternity ward and re-examined the next morning in the presence of a senior clinician. A debate ensued, according to Mokoena, on the course of action as her labour progressed rapidly.
“One doctor suggested giving me steroids to help the baby's lungs so when he came out he would have a fighting chance. The senior doctor (apparently) said no and insisted on induced labour and said to let the baby be.
“I then spoke to one of the doctors who had checked on me and told him I had no medical issues and that my labour, to my knowledge, was progressing well enough for me to not induce labour because I wanted to give my child a fighting chance.”
She said the doctor had suggested discharging her, given the choice she made, but she didn’t want this.
She then underwent an hours’-long nightmare of labour, allegedly without the help of nurses.
Mokoena said her cries for help and pain relief were ignored as the staff allegedly attended to other patients in the ward but not her, and at one point shouted at her for “making a noise”.
“At around 5pm, the labour pains reached an unbearable point and a nurse came and closed off my section with a curtain. I knew the baby was coming.
“In my mind I thought since I was in a hospital the nurses would try to help give my child a fighting chance. I also thought, even if he doesn’t survive, I’ll know I tried and that they tried too,” she said.
However, she was to go through her son’s birth unassisted.
“I cried out for help …after he had come out, but no one came. I called for more than 30 minutes and not one nurse came. I could hear them talking at the nurses’ station. After more than half an hour my cousin contacted the hospital and complained about the lack of care and threatened to report it.
“That’s when one nurse appeared. But when she got there, she just shouted at me for making a noise. The baby was still between my legs. They hadn’t cut his umbilical cord.”
A video Mokoena took shows how she cried out for help with her newborn baby between her legs. She also explained her son’s feeble attempts to breathe, with no one on hand to assist or provide support.
After another 15 minutes a nurse returned with linen to cover the baby and to cut his umbilical cord. He was then taken to the neonatal intensive care unit and she was told his chances of survival were slim.
“Shortly afterwards, they came to tell me he didn’t make it.”
“I felt the nurses had failed me… Even if they knew the baby wouldn’t make it, they should’ve given me some hope and him a fighting chance, even if he had survived for 20 minutes,” she said.
Her care improved only after her family threatened the hospital. A matron arrived to speak to her and Mokoena was advised to lodge a complaint for investigation, which she did. She was also offered counselling before she was discharged.
She plans to sue Gauteng Health.
“I’m not the first to go through this. So I’m fighting for my baby, since they failed to give him a fighting chance, and other women in a similar situation.”
A midwife who spoke to TimesLIVE Premium said a miscarriage usually occurred during the early stages of a pregnancy, and from 26 weeks a woman could go into early labour.
“The staff should check the baby’s heart rate and whether you’re having contractions or just bleeding. They should then check the baby’s weight, because it needs to be at least 800g to have a chance of surviving. If it’s lower than that, the infant’s chances of survival are very slim,” she explained.
“At 24 weeks, the expert would concede the baby’s chance of survival was slim. The best thing to do is monitor the situation and give the best care possible.
“It’s important for every child to be given a chance. But it’s also important for a patient to understand what they’re being told and to make sure that everything has been properly explained.”
Gauteng Health said it was aware of the matter and would be launching an independent investigation.
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