South Africa: 'Take your dead child with' (Hospital staff insists family take body when they leave)

News 24 (South Africa) ^ | December 15, 2005 | Marietie Louw

[Stoat]

'Take your dead child with'

15/12/2005 22:30  - (SA)  

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Marietie Louw , Beeld

 

Polokwane - "Take your child's body with you when you go home."

This was the shocking instruction a couple got when their baby boy died shortly after birth in the Mankweng hospital, about 30km from Polokwane.

Andries Krugel said the hospital staff refused to allow his wife, Geraldine, to leave for home unless she took her baby's dead body with her.

"My wife asked then what she should do with the body; whether she should put it in the deep freeze at home," an upset Krugel said.

This was the second incident in the past two months where staff at the Mankweng hospital had told patients to take the bodies of dead babies with them.

Foetus in black bag A Polokwane worker - who did not want her name mentioned - said her daughter experienced the same trauma some two months ago.

The woman had a miscarriage and had to take the six month old foetus with her in a black bag when she left the hospital.

The Krugels' baby boy, whom they would have christened Willem Frederik, was born in the Polokwane provincial hospital about two weeks ago.

He had a lung problem and because he could not be treated at the Polokwane provincial hospital, he was transferred to the Mankweng.

Geraldine Krugel accompanied her child to the hospital.

"They did not give her a bed and she had to sit on a bench for three hours before they made a bed available," Krugel said.

This was shortly after the baby had been born.

The baby died of complications shortly before midnight that day.

'Be back at 06:00

"The nursing sisters then refused to release my wife unless she took the boy's body with her."

The Krugels were eventually allowed to leave, but had to report back at the hospital by 06:00 in the morning .

"We then had to wait until noon and were then again told to take the baby's body with us unless we could arrange with an undertaker to come and collect it."

Krugel then had to arrange with an undertaker to collect the body the next morning.

"We were treated badly by the hospital and do you think it will help us at all to take any steps?

"We know nothing will come of it," a disgusted Krugel said.

'Unacceptable' Limpopo health department spokesperson Phuti Seloba said an investigation was under way to establish the facts.

"It is only a person with a sick mind that can treat patients in that manner; this type of instruction is unacceptable," he said.

Seloba said nursing staff acting in that manner "must have lost all sense of compassion for their fellow beings".

He confirmed that all hospitals have mortuaries where bodies are supposed to be taken to until the family can make arrangements with undertakers for proper removal of the bodies.

[litehaus]

Tell it TUTU and Mandela and Mbeki---All saviors of THEIR country...........

[ncountylee]

South Africa is the only country that has gone from first to third world status. IMHO

[Stoat]

Tell it TUTU and Mandela and Mbeki---All saviors of THEIR country...........

I'm guessing that Winnie Mandela or any of her close ladyfriends would never have this sort of thing happen to them if they were to have a miscarriage or a death of a loved one.

First of all, they would never seek treatment in a SA hospital, I'll wager.

[American Quilter]

Without property rights and the rule of law, no country can prosper.

Without prosperity, essentials like health care, education, and democracy can't exist.

Without health care, education, and democracy, luxuries like protection for the weak and powerless are impossible. Life becomes a brutal struggle for survival, with the weak and powerless dying first.

Anyone who thinks the US is a bad country should have to live in Africa, where they can see the results of replacing capitalism and freedom with socialism and oppression.

[TaxRelief]

Why should a family not be responsible for the body of a family member?

[Stoat]

South Africa is the only country that has gone from first to third world status. IMHO

Agreed. 

My heart goes out to the common folk there who are having their lives destroyed for Socialism.  One can easily see why people from nearby hellholes like Cuba, Haiti, etc will eagerly put their lives at risk in leaky, overcrowded boats and rafts in a desperate effort to leave such places and come to the USA.

 

 

[American Quilter]

Why should a family not be responsible for the body of a family member?

Why are you addressing this question to me?

[Stoat]

Without property rights and the rule of law, no country can prosper.

Without prosperity, essentials like health care, education, and democracy can't exist.

Without health care, education, and democracy, luxuries like protection for the weak and powerless are impossible. Life becomes a brutal struggle for survival, with the weak and powerless dying first.

Anyone who thinks the US is a bad country should have to live in Africa, where they can see the results of replacing capitalism and freedom with socialism and oppression.

Well said, thank you.

Without property rights and the rule of law, no country can prosper.

Without prosperity, essentials like health care, education, and democracy can't exist.

Without health care, education, and democracy, luxuries like protection for the weak and powerless are impossible. Life becomes a brutal struggle for survival, with the weak and powerless dying first.

Anyone who thinks the US is a bad country should have to live in Africa, where they can see the results of replacing capitalism and freedom with socialism and oppression.

[ozzymandus]

So if your mother dies in the hospital, you should take her corpse home with you? Think a little.

[Stoat]

Why should a family not be responsible for the body of a family member?

No one is suggesting that there be no responsibility; what is being discussed in the article is the physical disposition of the remains immediately after death.  From the article:

**********************************************************

'Unacceptable' Limpopo health department spokesperson Phuti Seloba said an investigation was under way to establish the facts.

"It is only a person with a sick mind that can treat patients in that manner; this type of instruction is unacceptable," he said.

Seloba said nursing staff acting in that manner "must have lost all sense of compassion for their fellow beings".

He confirmed that all hospitals have mortuaries where bodies are supposed to be taken to until the family can make arrangements with undertakers for proper removal of the bodies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***********************************************************

[Restorer]

South Africa is the only country that has gone from first to third world status.

It's always been a third world country with first world enclaves, which have unfortunately gotten much smaller in recent years.

[litehaus]

"Without health care, education, and democracy, luxuries like protection for the weak and powerless----( should be Powderless here)---- are impossible. Life becomes a brutal struggle for survival, with the weak and powerless dying first."

Hurrah for Black Powder Shooters!THAT would change the whole perspective!

[TaxRelief]

"We then had to wait until noon and were then again told to take the baby's body with us unless we could arrange with an undertaker to come and collect it."

If you indicate to the hospital that you will NOT be having an undertaker come, then what is the alternative?

[TaxRelief]

Undertakers want "regulation". Why? What is the bigger picture here?

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=258211&area=/insight/insight__national/

[Mind-numbed Robot]

South Africa is the only country that has gone from first to third world status. IMHO

Afraid not. Their next door neighbor, Zimbabwe, is worse off. They used to be the very properous nation of Rhodesia.

The Communists penetrated most countries of Africa and started a campaign against "Colonization" and insisted that Africa be returned to Africans. Over time, a once very prosperous continent became what it is today.

We shouldn't shake our heads from afar, they are trying to do the same in this country right now. With promises of an earthly paradise the Communists always manage to turn prosperity into poverty, slave labor, and slaughter

[ncountylee]

Actually, we had a family branch in Rhodesia that I visited once about 1960. It was wonderful then but most or all my relatives have been gone for years.