Disciplinary hearing for nurses after death of 19-month-old

The three nurses who were on duty at Khakhu Clinic when the grandmother of the sick 19-month-old baby was turned away to go home, will attend a disciplinary hearing this week.

According to the dead child's parents, Mr Mashudu and Mrs Mumsy Mulaudzi, the Department of Health will later provide the family with a detailed report on the outcome of the hearing. "I received a call this week, notifying me about the hearing and that we shouldn't worry as the outcome report would be communicated to us," Mr Mulaudzi said on Tuesday. "We just pray they speed up the process. Our baby died because health workers refused to help."

This case made newspaper headlines late last year, when news of the baby who had died after nurses had allegedly turned him and his guardian away spread through Vhembe like wildfire. The child's guardian and grandmother, Vho-Reginah Mulaudzi, had rushed Mulalo to the Khakhu clinic on 5 October, after she had noticed that he had a high fever and was vomiting. She was allegedly turned away because the three nurses on duty were helping a woman in labour.

Baby Mulalo was only attended to the following morning, but died two hours later. Mulalo's mother, Mumsy, said that the clinic's attitude towards patients had caused her son's death. “I want to believe that, if he had been helped, my child would still have been alive,” she said.

The spokesperson for the Department of Health, Ms Adele van der Linde, said that the department was not ready to provide the media with any information on the case at this stage. "We are still investigating this case and we will release the outcome thereof as soon as all the processes have been completed," she added.

News - Date: 28 March 2014

Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

Email: [email protected]