Durban — A family in Ngonyameni in Durban are enraged after they had to exhume a body of a baby on Monday, which they buried in their yard after the bodies were allegedly switched at a hospital during birth in November last year.
The family said they ended up burying two bodies after the baby that was given to them first was not theirs.
Gabisile Mkhize said when her daughter Mbali Mkhize, 27, was pregnant last year, she attended a clinic at the RK Khan Hospital in Chatsworth.
She said when Mbali was five months pregnant, a doctor from the hospital told her that she needed to terminate the pregnancy because the foetus was dead for two months.
She said Mbali was then given tablets to help with the termination process.
“When she arrived home, she took the pills and we had to rush her to the same hospital the following day because she was not feeling well and she was bleeding non-stop. The doctors told us to go back home because the foetus was not ready to come out on that day.
“The following day after we went home Mbali started bleeding heavily and the baby’s head was already showing, I then hired a private vehicle to rush us to the hospital,” said Mkhize.
She said when they arrived at the hospital, Mbali had already given birth and she was then admitted to the labour section.
She said Mbali spent more than a week in the hospital because nurses and doctors allegedly neglected her and the placenta had not been removed.
“After Mbali spent a weekend unattended at the hospital, a nurse said she was in no condition to go home because she had to first go to the theatre to remove the placenta,” said Mkhize.
She said she then asked the hospital to give her the baby’s body so she could start preparing for the funeral.
“The hospital’s mortuary first refused to give me the body. They said I should come back on the Monday because it was a weekend.
“When I came back they handed me a small bucket that had Mbali’s details and the body was inside. Everything happened in a rush and I did not have the time to take a look at it properly,” said Mkhize.
She said when she was dressing the body the following day at home, she noticed that it was different from the one she first saw.
“After the funeral, I had a vision during my sleep that the body was not ours. I then went to the hospital the following day and they said that my accusations were baseless,” said Mkhize.
She said the following day a doctor called to inform her that there might have been a mix-up of the bodies and the hospital was going to further investigate.
She said from December there had been endless discussions with different hospital authorities until it was decided to run a DNA test on the body that was speculated to be of their baby.
“In February the DNA test confirmed that we had indeed buried the wrong body. The hospital then promised to help pay for the funeral arrangements and to also help exhume the wrong body.
“They then disappeared on us ever since and we buried the body by ourselves. We had two bodies buried in our yard since February. They only sent in people to exhume the body on Monday,” said Mkhize.
She said Mbali’s life had never been the same after the incident and she had been complaining of lower abdominal pains.
KwaZulu-Natal Health Department spokesperson Ntokozo Maphisa said the institution was aware of the matter, and informed the department that there has been co-operation between the hospital and the affected family.
“The hospital has informed the ministry and everything that has been done to correct the mistake in the cross-breeding of the embryos, including measures taken by the staff.
“After following up the procedures including genetics and psychological services, the family were finally given the right embryo, and they were also met by the department with funeral services. The foetus which was buried in the yard, has been exhumed and will be looked after properly.
“According to the report from the hospital, the request to wash the house had never come up before and when it came up, the department decided to work with the family to close it in a dignified way,” said Maphisa.
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