The family of a 27-year-old woman who died shortly after giving birth to twin girls at Kgapane Hospital outside Tzaneen in Limpopo is blaming the hospital for her death.
Masale Rakgwatla of Sehlakong village died on Sunday morning following a cesarean section the previous night.
The babies are in good health.
Family members say they were not immediately informed of the incident and only found out through police officers who had been called to the hospital.
Rakgwatla’s relative Maite Rapao says the hospital is not providing them with answers.
“We are heartbroken. We thought Masale would be able to raise her children. We are confused and don’t know what to do because no one is working in the family. We are frustrated because the hospital is not giving us answers on what happened. We want the truth. Was Masale assisted or neglected after the doctor delivered her babies? What killed Masale?”
Meanwhile, the Limpopo Health Department says an investigation into possible negligence will only be launched if the MEC believes the maternal death report warrants such an investigation.
Spokesperson Neil Shikwambana has however admitted that there were delays in informing Rakgwatla’s family of the incident.
He says the cause of death will not be publicly revealed.
“When it comes to informing families, there are protocols that we follow. We must accept that we did not follow that protocol and for that, we sincerely apologise to the family. The reason was that there were frantic attempts to quickly get the police. When you’ve got a maternal death, we always call the police. When it comes to the causes of death we cannot publicly talk about it. But we can confirm that the patient had just undergone a successful cesarean operation, everything looked well on our part and she was closely monitored until three hours later when she quickly crashed and they tried to resuscitate her.”
