http://makaangola.org
Groaning
with labour pains, Florina Domingos writhed on the ground in the parking lot at
the Augusto N’gangula Maternity and Paediatric Hospital in Luanda on the night
of September 9.
Bystanders
called for the medical team to come and attend to the woman in labour, who had
been ordered out of the hospital waiting room by guards acting on the orders of
the hospital staff. Her family members and other patients’ relatives also
called frantically on the hospital personnel, who were ignoring calls for help.
Ms.
Domingos’s sister-in-law, Flora Rosita, told Maka Angola that Florinda
“was thrown out of the waiting room by the guards because the doctors said she
was only permitted to enter the waiting room at midnight.”
Cândida
Nimila, another sister-in-law, explained that the hospital staff had ordered
that Ms. Domingos receive attention only at midnight. Pregnant of seven months,
she had gone into labour prematurely.
Maka Angola can confirm that there were several
unoccupied seats in the waiting room, and that most of the people inside were
not patients.
At
exactly 10:25 PM Ms. Domingos gave birth to a boy on the ground of the parking
lot, between two parked ambulances, without medical assistance, and witnessed
by guards, family members and Maka Angola’s journalist.
Only
then did two bad-mannered and unrushed nurses arrive at the scene. On their
way, they found time to instruct the guards and a policeman to expel from the
hospital all those who had been trying to solicit help for Ms. Domingos and her
newborn baby.
Only
then did they give any attention to the new mother by cutting the umbilical
cord.
One
of the nurses took the newborn away, wrapped in a cloth belonging to his
mother. The other nurse took Florinda Domingos by the hand and asked her to go
inside the hospital, several metres away. There was no stretcher or wheelchair
to take her. The family was left to clean the area where the child had been
born.
The
baby died in the incubator around 4:00 AM, according to the death certificate
issued by the hospital. The family, who had spent the night at the hospital,
was not informed until 10:00 AM. Cândida Nimila accused the medical team of
hiding the truth. “This morning I had to keep insisting that they let us see
the baby since that was the family’s right. Only then did they tell us the baby
was dead,” Ms. Nimila said.
Hospital
guards and the families of other patients told Maka Angola of
corrupt practices that determine who is allowed into the waiting room and who
has priority for treatment. Ms. Domingos’s family, who are poor and live in
Boavista, managed to pay 2,000 kwanzas (US$20) to one of the nurses, but even
this was not enough to secure a place in the waiting room.
“With
no shame or anything, the nurse did not even give back the 2000 kwanzas after
what happened,” Ms. Nimila said.
Meanwhile,
according to official propaganda, “one of the main causes of death at the
Augusto N’gangula Hospital is that women in labour arrive too late to receive
help,” according to the state daily Jornal de Angola of June 4, 2012.
On
August 10, health minister José Van-Dúnem reinaugurated the hospital after
renovation work. The minister said: “We will continue to work so that all have
access to decent health facilities, we are trying to eradicate child mortality
in our country”. Florinda Domingos was thrown out of that same new hospital
wing where there is a plaque next to the door to mark the reinauguration of the
hospital by Mr. Van-Dúnem.
The
cases recorded by Maka Angola, which will be reported at a
later date, show a picture very different from that painted by the official
propaganda.
The newborn boy, who was never named, was buried in
Luanda’s Cemetery 14
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