By: Kelvin Chiringa
A Walvis Bay registered nurse and midwife, Rakkel Shijabuluka has brought a load of incriminating evidence against the ministry of health in a case of negligence which has resulted in a massive N$2.3 million lawsuit.
The ministry is under fire from one Milka Lopez who claims that negligence at the Walvis Bay state hospital led to the painful untimely death of her daughter, Margaritha Sophia Paula Nghinamwaami, soon after she gave birth to a still-born baby.
In her evidence in chief, the midwife yesterday agreed in the Windhoek High Court that inadequacies and unprocedural conduct on the part of the nurse that handled the deceased and the doctor led to her losing too much blood, suffering a body shock leading to her death.
The deceased had a huge laceration on her vagina caused by childbirth, and according to Shijabuluka, the midwife responsible should have immediately sought the assistance of the doctor before retiring her to bed.
She testified that although the midwife managed to stabilise the patient, the doctor should still have made a follow up to examine the patient.
This, according to lawyer Corinna van Wyk meant the doctor had abandoned on his duties.
“If it was me I would have sought the doctor’s assistance,” Shijabuluka weighed in.
However, it came out clear that Shijabuluka was not there when the deceased gave birth but only took responsibility for her when she was put in bed.
Another case against the ministry is that a pool of blood was also found on the bed where the deceased lay.
Although Shijabuluka denied seeing this, she testified that when she pulled out the tampon from the deceased’s private parts, a “gush of blood” estimated to be plus or minus 250ml came out.
However, lawyer van Wyk put it to her that there was no way she could have seen the pool of blood because she came to see the patient after her relatives had cleaned her.
Considering that the deceased had also lost blood during birth, Shijabuluka agreed that she had little blood left in her and that she should have been given more blood first before being rushed into Intensive Care Unit.
She said the patient was sensitive and appeared to be in pain, which prompted her to call the doctor, who later referred her to Windhoek during which journey her condition worsened.
Pressed on what the doctor had written down as the reason for her transfer to Windhoek, Shijabuluka testified that the patient’s internal organs had “collapsed”.
The midwife further made unsettling revelations that the deceased’s dead child was not properly kept in a mortuary but got dumped in an abandoned room.
As such they could not tell the deceased’s family where the child had been kept.
“No proper procedure was taken,” she admitted, “We were not given a report on the whereabouts of the baby. We just assumed it was in the mortuary.”
Meanwhile, the doctor who dealt with the deceased is set to testify this week Tuesday.
