The father of an unborn baby who died recently at the Otjiwarongo State hospital has expressed his disappointment in the doctor who reportedly refused to attend to his wife in the maternity ward.

Rodney Pollmann said the delay of an operation by health workers who were on duty that day, caused the death of his unborn baby.

Pollmann, who is also an employee at the hospital, said it was on 6 March 2022, around 18h00, when he took his wife, Yvonne, to the hospital because she was in labour pain. She was admitted to the maternity ward.

“Around 20h23, my wife called me and told me that she cannot hold the pain anymore, and asked that I arrange an emergency Caesarean section.”

He and his wife’s family drove back to the hospital as fast as they could, and found the only doctor who was on standby in the casualty ward.

But the doctor did nothing, he said. 

“My mother-in-law explained the situation that my wife needed an emergency C-section because the delivery date she was given passed a few days ago already. She is over 38-years old, and it was her first time to give birth, so they gave permission for her to be operated on,” he narrated. 

“I had been begging for over 16 times. I also explained that a similar situation happened to my sister at this hospital, and her unborn baby passed away because the nurses and doctors ignored the pleas, and that I didn’t want the same thing to happen to me.”

Pollmann said he was begging the doctor to not ignore him. He also came to a point where he told the doctor that if something was to happen to his wife, he would sue the doctor because “prevention is better than cure”.

He added that he was also begging one nurse, and also explained the situation to her.

 “As she was avoiding me until the end, we as a family got out of casualty and drove back home. I came back to the maternity ward later. I approached another nurse, and she showed me the note that the doctor had written that my wife would be seen the next day,” he explained.

“On Monday morning, the doctors failed to operate on my wife, and decided to give her a pill which would accelerate the pain in two hours. If that would not work, they were to do an emergency C-section on her.”

He said his wife called him again and told him she needed an emergency C-section. She also told the nurses who were present on duty that time, but they allegedly kept on ignoring her. At around 19h30, she released a fluid. 

She told the nurses about that, but according to her, they insisted that she walked up to the labour room by herself while she was in pain.

 “On my arrival at the ward, my wife was not helped. That was around 20h20 and I tried to call the doctor who was there when she was admitted on Sunday. But she told me that the doctor is not on duty, and that I must call the other doctor,” continued Pollmann.

“On Tuesday, my baby was declared dead after the operation while he could have survived as I was begging the doctor since Sunday.”

Therefore, he said, the hospital failed four times to save his baby, who could have been alive today. 

Otjozondjupa health director Gerbardo Timotheus said what was done was wrong and unacceptable. 

He said the doctor and nurses were supposed to render service at the beginning when the mother arrived at the hospital on Sunday.

“It is very painful to lose a baby in such a way while there were people who were supposed to help early,” he stressed.

Timotheus said he would call the health workers who were on duty the day Pollmann came to the hospital so that an investigation can be conducted.

-fhamalwa@nepc.com.na

Caption

Distraught… Rodney Pollmann and his wife Yvonne blame the staff at the Otjiwarongo State hospital after losing their baby.

Photo: Contributed