Hospital returns stillborn to parents to bury

GIDEON Amulungu and his wife, Sylvia, recently had to deal with a double shock: their son was stillborn and then they had to bury him themselves because of an administrative error by the Swakopmund State Hospital.

Sylvia was six months pregnant when she had a miscarriage last month. She was treated at the Swakopmund State Hospital. When she was discharged the following day, she and her husband were given the option to either have their dead son buried themselves, or allow the hospital to take care of it.’The nurse told us that it was the parents’ decision what to do with the body. We decided that the hospital should take care of it,’ Amulungu told The Namibian.’We were through enough hurt after the miscarriage of a nearly full-term [baby].’The couple said they were then requested to sign a form indicating that they wished the hospital to dispose of the body.’We signed the form on the same day and went home. We just wanted to get over the situation,’ Amulungu said.Two weeks later, a hospital official called them and asked what they wanted to do with the body.’I said, no man! We already signed the form. What’s going on? They then said we did not sign the form correctly and that we had to come and collect the body and organise the burial ourselves,’ Amulungu said.When the couple arrived at the hospital, they were informed that the body was too big to be incinerated.’One of the matrons then arrived and wanted to know what the problem was. The station nurse explained to her what had happened. The matron then flatly said it was just a mistake. I asked, ‘a mistake – after two weeks?”There was no option, we had to go and get the body and have it buried.’Erongo Director of Health and Social Services, Christencia Thataone, admitted that a mistake had been made by the hospital.She said the policy of the Ministry of Health and Social Services, which has to be implemented by all State hospitals in Namibia, says that any stillborn before 26 weeks of pregnancy can be incinerated by the hospital, with permission from the parents.Any stillborn after 26 weeks is considered ‘fully developed’ and cannot be incinerated by the hospital, unless the parents receive clearance from the Police.’Maybe the person on duty did not know all this and the other person came and realised. This was definitely a mistake,’ she said. ‘This should all have been explained to the parents right from the beginning,’ Thataone said.