The Limpopo Department of Health says an investigation will be instituted over the death of a pregnant woman at the Philadelphia Hospital in Moutse, while waiting for an ambulance.
Maria Phora (42) went to the hospital after experiencing labour pains. Her husband, Paul Makuru, says he was informed that she would be transferred to the Polokwane Provincial Hospital for a cesarean section.
It is alleged the hospital only had one ambulance as the rest were unroadworthy. Makuru says he went home and the next morning received the news that his wife and unborn child had died.
Limpopo Department of Health Spokesperson, Neil Shikwambana, says a team of experts will be sent to the Philadelphia Hospital, which is equipped to carry out a cesarean section.
“We are told that she immediately succumbed to that because there was a delay in terms of an ambulance, something that we do not understand as to why must you call an ambulance to send her to hospital which is in Polokwane, over 200 km away whereas you can operate in that facility . So that is why the MEC has launched a standard team of experts to go there and investigate exactly what transpired. As much as the hospital has given us their side of the story, we believe that there are other questions that must still be answered. She needed to be operated there and then at the hospital facility,” says Shikwambana.
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