A TWENTY-FIVE-YEAR-OLD father of twins was on Wednesday astounded when two hours after the hospital had certified one of his newly-born babies dead, he discovered that the infant was still breathing and crying just as it was about to be taken to the mortuary.
What could be described as an out-of-the-ordinary incident happened around 13:00 hours on Thursday when Dadly Bumba, of Nkonje Village in Chief Chamuka’s area, was told by the hospital authorities that one of his day-old twins had died and that he needed to rush to the police station to get an Occurrence Book Number (OB), since the babies were born from home.
Mr Bumba narrated how he rushed to Kasanda Police Station where he reported the death of his baby girl and a number accompanied by a police report was given to him so that he and his family could bury the still-born baby.
He said his 18-year-old wife, Elizabeth Nkombwe, who was seven months pregnant, gave birth to twin babies, both girls, on Wednesday around 22:00hrs and that he rushed his wife and the babies to Kabwe General Hospital on Thursday around 09:00hrs so that they could be examined by the hospital to avoid complications.
He said upon arrival at the hospital, the staff on duty examined the babies and that around 13:00hrs, he and his wife were informed that one of the babies had died.
Mr Bumba was then issued with a death certificate by the doctor on duty and further advised to get a police report and OB number for him to dispose of the body.
He then called his relatives at the farm and informed them about one of his babies’ demise, and that the baby was about to be taken to the mortuary.It was at that point when some of his family members, who were at the hospital, noticed the baby breathing and eventually started crying.
He quickly called the sister in-charge to inform her about the new development but that she refused to attend to him, saying the baby in question was already dead and was certified so by a doctor.
After insisting that the nurse sees the baby to prove that the baby was indeed alive, the sister-in-charge was, however, terrified when she saw the baby breathing and crying.
She then informed her colleagues who quickly confiscated the death certificate and the police report from him and told him and his family to thank God for resurrecting their baby. He decided to report the matter to the district commissioner’s office.
And Kabwe District Commissioner, Patrick Chishala, directed Kabwe General Hospital to give him a conclusive report by 08:00hrs today to explain what happened to Mr Bumba’s born baby.
Mr Chishala said he was disappointed by the alleged negligence exhibited by Kabwe General Hospital staff.
He said it was sad that such things were happening in Kabwe just a few months after the country heard of a similar mishap at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka where the controversial Priscilla Nyirongo alleged that her newly-born baby had been swapped with a dead one.
The district commissioner, who rushed to the hospital around 16:00hrs with the ZANIS crew after the father of the baby narrated the ordeal to him, found the alleged dead baby lying next to her twin sister in a critical condition, while the nurse on duty tried to resuscitate her.But later around 18:00hrs, the baby died.
Mr Chishala blamed the hospital authorities over the whole matter, saying the condition could have stabilised if the hospital had immediately placed the baby in an incubator.
Mr Chishala was also disappointed by the failure to inform the hospital executive director, Dr Sylvester Kasonde, who was out on duty at the Mine Hospital.
He was surprised that it took his office to inform Dr Kasonde over the matter when the issue required urgent action by hospital staff to communicate and save the baby.
He, however, commended Dr Kasonde for the swift action he took in trying to save the baby’ s life.?
Meanwhile, Dr Kasonde assured the district commissioner that he would call for an emergency meeting for all hospital staff who were on duty at the time and get a full report of what had transpired.
He said the twins were premature babies born at seven months and that the healthier one was weighing 1.2 kilogrammes and her condition seemed stable, while the deceased weighed one kilogramme and had respiratory distress.
And Kasanda police constable, Mutale Sinkala confirmed issuing a police report and OB number to Mr Bumba.
Provincial medical officer, Dickson Suya, said premature babies were delicate cases as sometimes they took long to gasp.
ZANIS.
Pa Zed, its pefekto
Doctors no motivation
THERE ARE SO MANY “DOCTOR-CARELESSNESS” SITUATIONS WHICH ARE PAINFUL. SO MANY PEOPLE DIE FROM SITUATIONS OR OPERATIONS THAT ARE AS A RESULT OF CARELESSNESS BY DOCTORS. IT’S SO UPSETTING
what Anderson Cooper would call stupid deaths, you see them every day in Zed.
Good story, but what do you mean gave birth to two STILL BORN babies?
its a wrong term for the story.STILLBIRTHS are to say dead babies at birth but if born alive they will never be still births
As much as i agree that the doctor was careless this is mainly as a result of imcompetent systems that we have for medical staff in zambia. Doctors from third world countries become perfectly competent when working in first world conditions. Chisala and Kasonde can duck and dive all they want but they are as implicit in the matter as the Doctor who certified the baby dead. Useless systems produce useless actions and results.
Fire the nigga immediately
This is just shocking and it seems to me that no one is ever held accountable. Grieving families should be able to sue these institutions for negligence with the help of Legal Aid (if the organization is still functional). Then these institutions will wake up.
iwe if u say stil birth it means they were dead at tym of delivery.
But what is sad about ressurrection
Poverty is bad. The poor villager instead of seeking legal advice, went to seek political advice. Do we have any Ambulance Chasers in Zambia? Help the man!
In zambia people die from simple illnesses,too bad.Another baby died,while the mother was already at the clinic waiting for the doctor to attend to her…Doctors in zambia when are you going to value life? Shame!!!!!!!!!!
This story sent shivers down my spine.
suspicious much. Twin babies born still born at 22 hours on Wednesday, one pronounced dead at 13:00 then baby heard crying on the way to mortuary. You either need to check your facts or you’re intentionally spreading lies, given that I first heard of the BoZ-Fischer story from this website, I’m inclined to believe the latter and to stop reading this website.
I agree with #5. The Health Service, like many other institutions in Zambia, is crying out for good leadership. There are no systems in place to provide a joined up service and there is little or no accountability.
My twins were born at 6 and half months, received excellent care and lived without complications, of course not in Zambia. My point is for multiple pregnancies 7 months is not too early for the Executive Director to start giving stnpid excuses. Compensate the family you shameless Muppets mascarading as Doctors. Just turn the bloody hospitals into mortuaries if you want. We want to know the fate of the matron who refused to rush to the baby, her license must be struck off the medical
I thought still born babies are babies born dead??????… awe the chi article is confusing… and the negligence in zed annoying… sha!
Poor English, and yet there are dictionaries, including on-line language helps.
the above chaps can not even say:God gave back life to the lifeless child whom man said is dead! Always finding who to blame ! Mwabashani pa zambia?
ITS NOT OVER UNTIL JEHOVAH SAY SO!
If LT have correctly reported this news, what on earth does the Doc intend to say by this:
‘”Provincial medical officer, Dickson Suya, said premature babies were delicate cases as sometimes they took long to gasp.”‘ Took long to gasp?
I think it is now that the family and hospital need a police report, and death certificate.
So what if the baby’s heart was no beating what should have the doctor done. Say the baby is alive? Common people let us be realistic sometimes. Miracle happened baby is alive well and good let us move on.
You must be a Doctor also. You guys be taken to task one of these fine days. Recently we had some case from Kitwe of a nurse being beaten. Is thiss not proof? So many complaints on our medical attitude.
This is for you people not in the medical profession.
There are instances even in the so called developed countries where some one may start to breath spontaneously or regains consciousness after switching off their life support for a while.Try and do a bit of medical research before you comment.There is internet even in the developing world so stop being short sighted.
Can you tell when someone is completely dead???We use the term brain stem dead meaning that they are unresponsive to stimuli but can you really tell if they are out of it completely????
This is for all the minds that are gifted in analysing and reasoning,by the way.
Don’t bore us with all the technical explanations!! You went intto medical to look at our life, so do so!! You will be answerable one day.
general brozber agrees wth lundazi dweller and pippa. still birth take long to gasp meaning the baby was not breathin initially .so u expected the doctor to do what……its only later likely when being taken to the mortuary that it started breaking ……….this is not unsual for stil birth
Really sad
Please improve on you english please. U Still can’t differentiate A live baby and still born.
I totally agree that we need to improve on our system. This is just sad and terrible to comprehend people. Its lives that we are talking about here
Fire the one who certified the beautiful angel dead.
the doctor is a bugger deserves to be stonned to death
Mpanga ya Sapa, good one. You are very right.
PIPA @ 22, please and I beg you please stay in touch with reality. Whether medical mind or not observations made here far surpass those found among Zambian medical professionals. First, there’s a serious lack of care among medical personnel in Zambia, not all of them off course, but the majority do. Second, money required to replenish hospitals with modern day equipment is either buried underground or resides in the pockets of those selfish and diabolical nitwits camouflaged as politicians, with a few of them in the private sector. PIPA, it is long overdue, our country needs to undergo proper, careful and faithful rehab.
Very Sdd reading indeed.
When Cycle Mata arrived back home he told jounalist who wanted to interview him that he thought they were dead.Was Cycle Mata shown death certificates of jounalist who had died whilst in India and was amazed that they were alive? Its becoming a tradition for Ukwa to avoid getting interviewed by jounalist,perhaps we need back that jounalist who interviewd him about homosexuality in Zambia.
This is pure negligence! whatever you say mwebafishiba, ati shani shani uko ati ‘brain stem’, it is still what I think it is, negligence. Period!b The mother and father were probably not holding some car keys and speaking English. When will the ‘other’ man get the same chance as the one you think is the ‘man’
Arrest!
This is not first time in Zambia, ask the mortuary attendants at UTH, they experience people dying in fridges every week. In Zambia if a person stops answering or crying the doctor pronounced dead.
I stopped body-viewing because many people lay there with open eyes as if they died in drowning.
Heh! Heh! Heh! Waligomauka iwe mwee!
It is really a sad development, these situations need not to happen as they turnish the image of the health professionals indeed. Kwati kung’anga sure a person just dying like that. A footballer recently died on a pitch 78minutes and they still managed to bring him back to life, but in Zed even the idea of going to the hospital is suicide, too much negligence in the hospitals.
#35 Jackal. Amen to that! had it been in Zambia, they would have given up on the footballer before, he gave up himself. He would have been condemned to the Mortuary before he was ready
This is terrible. I’ve read some medical botch-ups before but to issue a death certificate for a living baby is the lowest level of unprofessionalism. And they expect people to refrain from superstition and trust doctors?
@ Nine Chale I was waiting for you to post brother the wise have spoken. This is actually a bad experience that has turned out to be a great revelation and miracle. We can now increase scrutiny of medical personel and also a baby was miraculous kept alive by Jesus.
THE PROBLEM WITH NURSES IS THAT THEY ALWAYS WANT TO COVER UP FOR THE MISTAKES DONE BY DOCTORS ON THE PATIENTS. THAT IS WHY SOMETIMES NURSES END UP BEING ASSAULTED BY RELTIVES OF PATIENTS BECAUSE NURSES DO NOT WANT TO EXPOSE DOCTORS INADEQUACIES. WHY WAS THE SISTER IN-CHARGE RELUCTANT TO GO AND SEE THE BABY AS REPORTED BY THE PARENT? WHY GRABBING THE POLICE FORMS AND DEATH CERTIFICATE? IN WHOSE INTEREST WAS THE NURSE ACTING LIKE THAT? THAT LEVEL OF STUPIDITY MUST BE STOPPED IF NURSES ARE TO BE RESPECTED.
Ain’t that a bitch. Only in Zed can a doctor or indeed a hospital get away with this kind of behaviour. Am glad the relatives heard the baby’s cry and alerted the nurse on duty to go check on her. Can you imagine putting that poor baby in the freaking mortuary alive??? Boy…this is a LAW suit on any given day. That doctor and his entire staff should ALL be fired immidiately then prosecuted. This is negligence of the highest level. No one deserves this, and this is a young couple too. I can’t imagine me being a parent in this situation! Somebody getting a beat down, mercilessly at that! Fyola…..
From your first year in Medical School you are taught you KNOW that Respiratory Distress Syndrome is NUMBER ONE issue with prematures and you MUST infuse a SURFACTANT IMMEDIATELY you see the child! YOU KNOW THAT!!! WHY SHOULD THIS INNOCENT CHILD FROM SUCH A CURABLE CONDITION>? NEGLIGENCE INDEED! DON’T REPEAT THAT
Medical personnel are very careless and useless almost in all Hospitals. So many people are dieng due to lack of care. Fire the bugger.
This is very clear case of PROFESSIONAL NEGLIGENCE. The relevant body that provides practicing Licenses and regulates the conduct of medical staff must institute thorough investigations on the calibre, professional and social conduct of the Kabwe Doctor who certified the baby “dead” in order to escape for his personal errands. The Doctors are supposed to be well drilled in human physiology so as to be able to distiguish between the state of the respiring cells/tissues/organs/body and nature of the dead or non-respiring cells/tissues/organs/body. It sounds like the Doctor could have been drunk – and such cases are numerous in our hospitals. DO NOT EXTEND THE DOCTRINE OF DONCHI KUBEBA into our hospitals.
My simple question remain what was the doctor supposed to do if the heart was not beating? Iam not a medical person but sometimes people lack alot of objectivity. This could be a case of negligence at the same time just plain miracle! the baby came back to life. Even without the family suing Iam pretty sure the doctor who signed the death certificate will have to sit before a medical board and be grilled on how he signed a death certificate when the baby was still alive,
Maybe Docs should take 24 hours to certify and in the meantime continue resuscitating. So the Boston soccer icon (Muamba) would have been certified dead if he was here. It is said he had died for 78 minutes :-??
Still confused ! could it have been a miracle ?
donchi kubeba
Typical medical incompetence in Zambia. One goes to hospital to die in Zambia. That is why the President went to India. No wonder mortuary attendants (bamalukula) are reputed to finish off with hammers anybody who wakes up in the mortuary in order to avoid malpractice claims against doctors and nurses.