THE HAPPY mother had just been blessed with no fewer than four babies.
On Friday, she held her healthy kids in her arms and her joy knew no bounds.
ON SATURDAY, SHE WAS TOLD ALL FOUR OF THEM WERE DEAD.
“I don’t have words to explain the pain I’m going through. I feel like dying,” said Khumbuzile Xaba.
The 37-year-old from Emdeni, Soweto is holding the staff at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital responsible for the tragedy. “Bara killed my four babies. They must tell me what they did to them,” she cried.
When she first fell pregnant, she didn’t know she was expecting four babies. She was given the information at Thembelihle Clinic in Lenasia and later a scan at Bara confirmed she was expecting three boys and a girl.
Khumbuzile was seven months pregnant when she started experiencing labour pains last Friday and was taken to hospital.
“I was told I could give birth at any time,” she said.
She was taken to theatre and it didn’t take long before the first baby arrived at about 12.15pm in the afternoon.
She said the nurses were ululating and proudly saying they had never helped a woman give birth to four babies before.
“I was happy to hear my kids cry and I saw them being taken by nurses to be cleaned,” she said. A few hours later she was taken to see the babies in their ward and held them. The babies were in incubators.
Khumbuzile said when she left the ward they were healthy. “I had even named them. The boys were Golden Sphamandla, Gift Siyabonga, Prince Sibusiso and the girl was Princess Sphesihle.”
But that was the last time she saw them alive.
On Saturday she was told the children were dead.
“I was shocked. I couldn’t believe what they were saying. I demanded answers but they didn’t tell me anything,” Khumbuzile said.
She said she was discharged on Monday without being given any information.
The babies are in the hospital mortuary and the family is arranging a proper burial.
Khumbuzile said she also wants the hospital to perform a post mortem to find out why the babies died.
“The scans I have of the babies are the only pictures I’ll ever have of my four babies as a reminder of their short lives. I’m left with only the clothes that I bought for them.”
The father of the children, Enos Bila (46), said they want answers from the hospital.
“This was negligence. How can my children die when they were so healthy?”
Prince Hamnca of the Gauteng Department of Health said they are aware of the case and are investigating the details.
