THE family of a 39-year-old woman from Etope village in the Ohangwena region has accused medical staff at Eenhana District Hospital of negligence following the deaths of the woman and her newborn baby.
Johanna Ekandjo and her baby boy died on 30 August 2026 while Ekandjo was in labour at the state-owned hospital.
Ekandjo’s nephew, Leonard Shikololo, alleged that doctors and nurses failed to provide the necessary care and attention during the delivery, claiming that the deaths could have been prevented.
The family has called on minister of health and social services Esperance Luvindao to investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths.
According to Shikololo, Ekandjo went to the hospital on 5 August after which she was admitted to the maternity ward at around midnight on 28 August after experiencing labour pains.
“She had labour pains, but a doctor allegedly prescribed her seven doses of a labour inducing medication because the baby was not coming and she was in pain,” Shikololo alleges.
He further claims that the following day, Ekandjo called nurses for assistance but was allegedly told that she was not yet ready to deliver.
“The nurses allegedly told her not to breathe too much and that she should not push,” he says.
Shikololo says the family was devastated by the deaths and believes more could have been done to save both Ekandjo and her baby.
“As the family, we feel that the nurses and the doctors were negligent, as the two could have been saved, but the doctors and the nurses did nothing to save them,” he alleges.
“We feel that we have lost two family members,” Shikololo adds.
Shikololo says that the family got Ekandjo’s postmortem on Tuesday this week but according him the cause of death has not been disclosed.
“The senior medical officer Martinus Shaninga told us that Johanna was at the first stage of labour and all they could do was to administer the induction dose. He also told us that the pregnancy was late by two weeks.
Why did they not perform a caesarean on her? Why did they wait until they died?
“We request that the minister of health and social service launch an investigation in this matter. We want to hear how Johanna died because we feel that it was negligence,” he says.
Shikololo claims that Shaninga had informed the family that he personally performed the postmortem and that Shaninga told the family that he did not find anything wrong with the body.
“We believe that someone else who is not from the hospital should have conducted the postmortem because a doctor from the same hospital where Johanna died could cover up the real cause of death.
We are disappointed that Shaninga who is the head of the hospital, did the postmortem,” he says.
Shikololo says Ekandjo left behind three children between the ages of eight and 16 years.
Contacted for comment yesterday, Shaninga said: “I will send the answers to the PRO of the ministry Mr Kamaya, he is the only one with authority to respond to the media.”
Health ministry spokesperson Walters Kamaya said he had been informed that Ekandjo’s family has launched a formal complaint.
“So, usually when there is a formal complaint launched, we have to launch an investigation to really establish what had transpired and only after the investigation has been completed, that is when we can be in a better position to give a proper scenario,” Kamaya says.
