Government "Aware" Of Baby-Swapping Incident At United Bulawayo Hospitals
The United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) has launched an investigation into a recent baby-swapping incident at its maternity ward, a senior government official has said.
A woman who had given birth to a baby boy was shocked when a nurse handed her a baby girl.
Health and Child Care Ministry permanent secretary, Aspect Maunganidze (pictured above), told the Chronicle on Monday that the Government is aware of the incident and described it as “very unfortunate.” Said Maunganidze:
The ministry is aware of the unfortunate incident of ‘baby swapping’ that occurred at United Bulawayo Hospitals and awaits the results of the investigation that we instructed the hospital to undertake.
While we expect the investigation to be concluded expeditiously, we acknowledge the sensitivities around the matter.
Parallel to the investigative process, we have instructed the institution to assist with counselling all affected parties (including the staff), reorient or refresh our staff on the standard operating procedures during and after delivery, and reinforce the importance of good moral and ethical practice.
The mother of the boy had to resort to DNA testing at a private lab in the city centre and the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) to prove that the baby girl given to her by the nurse was not hers.
The nurse on duty had told her that she had given birth to a girl and, due to her Caesarean section, she might have been under sedation.
Zephania Dlamini, head of the Applied Genetics Testing Centre at NUST, confirmed that DNA tests conducted on the parents and babies unequivocally showed that the two babies had been exchanged. Said Dlamini:
Before approaching Nust, the complainant had sought testing at the Global DNA lab in the city centre, which confirmed that the baby girl was not hers.
Our results corroborated these findings. Subsequent testing on the couple claiming to be the parents of the boy yielded negative results, while the boy’s DNA matched that of the complainant, and the girl’s DNA matched that of the other woman.
Tags
29 Comments
1
