The bereaved mother of an alleged baby who according to the health ministry passed on due to Covid-19 but the family insists was due to a wrong injection has said that he passed on while in her arms.
Lavinia Ndilimekkeh Kanyumbo (26) recounted the horror of visiting a Windhoek clinic where her baby, Shiloh-Dane Ponhele Kosmas, received a dosage of immunisation only to deteriorate and passed on hours after.
However, she says what has left her family baffled it that she had to learn the following day through social media that her baby had succumbed to Covid-19.
“They did the Covid-19 screening questions and I only took him for immunization. On the 17th of August, I took my boy for immunization. They reported that my child was covid-19 negative.
“I have to say it is a wrong injection because my child was immunized when he was born and he was fine but when he got this injection he got affected. Why did the health officials not recommend for a Covid-19 test?” she said.
She has also said her child was immunized by a student nurse.
She expressed that she has no intention to sue the health ministry of government but to raise awareness to mothers on what they should do when they take their children for immunization.
While she told Eagle FM that non from the ministry of health had reached out to her for offer psycho-social support, health minister Kalumbi Shangula said his team was in touch with her.
“We are investigating,” Dr Shangula said without elaborating what an investigation entails.
Former health minister, Dr Bernard Haufiku who, during his tenure, dealt with allegations of wrong immunizations which allegedly claimed lives of minors said during such a time, communication is always key.
He said an investigation will have to be ideally launched with immediate effect.
Dr Haufiku said two possible scenarios are at play, either that the family may be wrong in their conclusion or whoever administered the injection could have made a mistake.
“We all make mistakes,” said Dr Haufiku who said the family should be by now very exhausted and mentally affected by the ordeal, hence the need to reach out to them.
Dr Haufiku said an investigation can find that the nurse that injected the baby may have used a high or low dosage both of which could have compromised the baby’s immune system.