Dying quintuplet turned away at Chantal Biya hospital

Written by YUH TIMCHIA, Standard Tribune Reporter

Saturday, 26 December 2009 09:41

BUEA—The last of the quintuplet who died here December 1 was turned around at the Chantal Biya Foundation in Yaounde, it has emerged.

quint_mother Parents and an ambulance crew were told no incubators were left at the hospital, after they had made a more that 400km ride from Buea.

The child died shortly after, on the way to the National Social Insurance Fund hospital across town, said the babies’ father, Collins Acha, 27.

Buea hospital officials rushed the last of the five babies to Yaoundé after four of them died shortly after delivery. Doctors said the children were “very very underweight”.

The real challenge was not delivering Wasse, 23, of the five babies - sustaining the lives of the three female and two male babies was, said the director of the Buea Regional Hospital, Victor Mbome Njie.

But denizens here have blamed neglect on the part of the Buea regional hospital for the loss of the babies.

Some say as medical experts who knew beforehand the couple was expecting more than three babies, they could to have recommended a more competent hospital for the deliveries but did not.

Officials at hospital were already in talks with the Douala Referral Hospital and the Chantal Biya Foundation when reporters arrived at the hospital on the day the mother was delivered.

But, “Moving these babies from here for more competent medical care would pose another big problem,” Njie said.

The midwife who delivered Wasse of the quintuplets, Margaret Ntonifor, said they discovered the lady was in labour just six months into her pregnancy, when she turned up complaining of abdominal pains, November 30.

The next day, around noon, she was delivered of the first four babies. But her belly was surprisingly still looking large. A re-examination revealed a fifth baby was on its way, Ntonifor told reporters.

Four of the five babies died before they could be evacuated to the Chantal Biya Foundation in Yaounde. The last, a female, died when they got to Yaounde that evening.

The baby’s colour had already started changing before they reached the nation’s capital, said Acha.

Doctor Njie said earlier that they were doing their “maximum” to keep the babies alive.

But he had added that their chances of survival were very very slim because they weighed less than a kilogram. “Premature babies are easily managed when they weigh about a kilogram,” he said.