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How mother lost newborn baby in Mulago after birth
Fatumah Nakayima
What you need to know:
The government has been ordered to pay Shs50 million to the mother as compensation.
Eight years later, justice has been served for Ms Fatumah Nakayima, a mother who sued the Mulago Hospital executive director and the government, accusing them of failing to give her her baby after delivery.
In his ruling on January 17, Justice Phillip Odoki of the High Court in Kampala stated: “The second respondent (Attorney General/government) is ordered to pay the second applicant (Nakayima) compensation of Shs50 million.”
In addition to the above compensation that shall attract the interest of 15 percent per annum from the date of the ruling, Justice Odoki also ordered the government to pay Ms Nakayima the cost of the suit.
Justice Odoki held that the “failure” of the hospital to give Ms Nakayima her baby after birth in December 2015 and “provide her information concerning the whereabouts of her baby, dead or alive, is a violation of her right to health.”
“All her efforts to secure her baby, dead or alive, were not successful… From those facts, it is very clear that the second respondent (Nakayima) suffered terrible psychological torture, which in my view affected her mental wellbeing and therefore a violation of her right to health,” he noted in the ruling.
The ruling followed a case filed by the Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) and Ms Nakayima who filed an affidavit supporting the application. The case was filed in 2016.
Asked yesterday about their next step, Dr Rosemary Byanyima, the acting executive director of Mulago Hospital, said: “I’ve seen the documents, but I gave my administrators to look through because I got them this week. 2015 is quite a while ago so we are trying to retrieve the information to try to understand what really happened.”
The applicants told the court that on December 26, 2015, Ms Nakayima went to Mulago Hospital with labour pains and was admitted to Ward 5C.
“The following morning, she was transferred to the theatre for an emergency caesarean section. While in the theatre, one Okwel, the anaesthetist, administered her full anaesthesia, causing her to lose consciousness during the operation,” they said.
Ms Nakayima, in her submission, said upon gaining consciousness, she asked for her baby but she was informed by a health worker the 3.5kg infant, “lived for a while and died.” She also said when she asked for her baby at the High Dependency Unit, she was told that her baby’s body couldn’t be found, raising more questions.
The applicants told court that on December 28, 2015, Ms Nakayima together with her mother, reported the matter to Mulago Police Station and the search in the hospital mortuary with police didn’t yield desired answers.
It was from this point that Ms Nakayima went to CEHURD who wrote to Mulago Hospital demanding accountability for the missing baby. However, “the letter was not responded to.”
What Mulago told court
According to court records, two health workers from Mulago Hospital, Dr Justus Barageine Kafunjo, an obstetrician, gynecologist and fistula surgeon, and Ms Teddy Kyokuwaire, a midwife, acknowledged that they handled Ms Nakayima.
But Dr Barageine told court that contrary to what Ms Nakayima said, “he found that the uterus was ruptured and the baby was already dead.”
Still contrary to Ms Nakayima’s submission, the midwife stated that she showed Ms Nakayima the dead baby.
Court records also indicate that before the hearing could proceed on merit, the respondents objected, saying the Mulago Hospital executive director is not a body corporate who can sue or be sued.
Following this, on March 12, 2018, the court gave a ruling, striking out the first respondent, leaving the second respondent (Attorney General). The applicants were represented by Mr Ibrahim Nsereko and Ms Ruth Ajalo of CEHURD legal aid clinic while the respondent was represented by an attorney from the Attorney General’s Chambers, who filed written submissions without disclosing his/her name, court said.
But Justice Odoki, in his ruling stated that the counsel’s “submission is not supported by any evidence on the court record.” He added that Kyokuwaire told court that she showed Nakayima and her sister the dead baby but she “did not mention that she handed over the body of the baby” to them.
Addressing journalists in Kampala yesterday, Ms Ajalo of CEHURD said due to increased advocacy, cases of missing babies have reduced.
“Hospitals have installed cameras, put up standard procedures where they tag babies and track their movement from delivery to the wards. We have not received so many cases of the same nature in the recent past but they could be out there,” she said.
