By Hans Ngala
A woman has died at the Bamenda Regional Hospital in a case of alleged medical negligence on the part of hospital staff. CNA got the now-deceased woman’s name as Nora. Our team has listened to and reviewed multiple eyewitness testimonies in audio and text, accusing doctors and nurses at the hospital of not attending to Nora even though she was over 8 months pregnant, complaining of abdominal pains and bleeding profusely.
“This is F Ward, Room One, and what happened was that due to the ignorance and negligence of the doctors and nurses, it led to her death because she came here very strong and healthy and could have given birth and gone back home with no problem, said Nora’s bed neighbour in the ward. When asked to corroborate the claim that hospital staff ignored the heavily pregnant Nora, the eyewitness said, “She was crying in pain, and she was bleeding continuously. The pain kept on aggravating, and she begged me to help her to the labour room so they could check her and give her pain killers for the pain or see what to do. I took her there at 2:00 a.m (on New Year’s Day). But they told me to take her back to the ward because her baby isn’t yet due, and she kept getting weaker and finally couldn’t walk. When we went there the first and second time, she could walk, but it got to an extent where she couldn’t walk or stand up,” the eyewitness explained.
A second eyewitness explained that Nora was asked to bring the baby’s clothes first and was repeatedly told that her baby wasn’t due yet.
“They keep doing this so that instead of giving birth normally, people will be forced to put to birth through operation and then they will have a percentage of money to take for themselves. This is wickedness,” the first eyewitness lamented.
CNA reached out to authorities at the Bamenda Regional Hospital for clarification on the matter and was told that “The hospital takes all maternal mortalities very seriously and conducts thorough audits of such cases as part of our quality improvement efforts. In line with our commitment to patient confidentiality and ethical practice, we do not comment on specific patient cases”.
CNA was informed by eyewitness accounts that efforts to save Nora’s life only began when she was within an inch of her life. Nora died, but her baby was alive at press time.
