The Cameroon Journal gathered that in the last days of March, a pregnant lady whose name we got only as Minette was admitted at Mbanga District Hospital after she complained of pregnancy related contractions. By March 30, her condition was reportedly deteriorating. Following the circumstances, her mother suggested to the doctors in the hospital she wanted to transfer her to a more competent hospital, but the doctors in Mbanga turned down her request.
On March 31st, her condition worsened and the mother once again requested for permission to rush her to a higher grade hospital – but the Doctors once more turned down her plea. The sister of the deceased, one Nicaise Kamo, told our reporter that the Doctor on duty, Thursday night, March 31st breaking April 1, spent most of his time sleeping and would not even make the rounds to patients. Then in the morning -April 1, the family was told that the child in the womb could not be located – no movement. The family, nevertheless, brought the drugs that had been prescribed. But they won’t help the situation. Smelling danger at this time, the Doctors advised the family to take the patient to a more appropriate medical facility.
However, seeing the bad state of the pregnant woman, the taxi man hired to evacuate her to the new hospital discerned she was already dead and refused the job. At this point it became clear to the family that their daughter was already gone to the world beyond.
But things descended even further down the slope from here. The remains were carried to the mortuary, but the mortuary attendant refused to intern the body because the family would not pay a 5000 FRS fee. It took the intervention of the DO for Mbanga and the District Medical Officer for the area to bring order to the situation. The body was later on released to the family, The Cameroon Journal learned that the father of the deceased conducted an operation on the dead woman and removed the foetus already dead too.
News of this incident was only recently leaked to the press. The DO and the District Medical Officer for Mbanga, we gathered, had warned the family not to talk to anybody especially the press, Andre Stephane Kamdem, brother to the deceased said. He revealed that the DO had prior to instructing them to remain silent, promised that they will be reimbursed all the expenses they had incurred on their daughter’s medical care and mortuary bills. The Journal learned that right after the Minister of Public Health, André Mama Fouda, learned of the incident, he hurriedly sacked the Hospital Director same Friday, April 1.
This incident comes only weeks after the heavily publicized case of Monique Koumateke who died under similar circumstances of neglect with her twins at a Douala gov’t hospital. The incident brought such shame on the Cameroon gov’t and recently, a report by the National Medical Council of Cameroon confirmed that Koumateke died because of neglect by medical practitioners in the hospital. However, gov’t authorities won’t renege on their assertion that Koumateke was already dead before she was taken to that hospital. But Koumateke family in a recent press release challenged the gov’t’s version of the story, insisting their sister died in the presence of doctors
Culled from cameroon journal
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