Alleged botched delivery leaves Joburg mom infertile, burnt and her newborn dead

Gruesome images of a newborn baby’s severely burnt and mutilated lifeless body have underscored the hazardous environments for women and children at Gauteng hospitals.

Tamminique Crawford, 26, detailed the “five nights of total horror” she said she endured in August at Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital, where she lost her son Taegan after an allegedly botched Caesarean section operation.

The Star has seen harrowing pictures of Taegan’s extremely charred and multi-coloured face, with blood and pus seeping out of his small frame, which was supposedly caused by the hot laser used during Tamminique’s C-section.

Tamminique said the operation damaged her uterus to a point where she won’t be able to bear any more children. She now attends extensive counselling for her trauma.

Tamminique also suffered shocking injuries, with pictures showing how her vagina and stomach area were drastically burnt, in what she called “negligence and inhumane treatment at Rahima Moosa”.

She said her ordeal began on August 13 when she arrived at the hospital about three weeks past her due date, where she was told by a nurse after a short examination that Taegan’s heartbeat couldn’t be found.

“I did not understand because after nine months without any complications, feeling my son’s movements and heartbeat and not missing a single antenatal appointment, how was it that on the day I arrived for delivery that his heartbeat couldn’t be found?

“But I was told to leave and come back the next day to be admitted and my labour induced,” Tamminique said.

She added that, the following day, she had to wait some 15 hours before she was attended to in the labour ward after 10pm, where she was eventually given 12 medicinal doses from August 14 to August 16 in an attempt to induce delivery.

Tamminique said a junior doctor decided to insert a bulb in her vagina, which ruptured her internally and, she added, caused her a great deal of pain.

“On August 17 at around 3am, I was eventually sent to the theatre for a C-section, but my son didn’t make it. Then one surgeon came to me and casually told me that I was burnt 'a little bit' during surgery.

“I asked a lady in the same ward to take pictures so I can see the burns and they were horrific. I was hospitalised from August 18 until I was discharged on August 19 without any treatment on my burn wounds or pain medication,” she said.

“The day I was discharged, I was told to go identify Taegan so they could release his body at the mortuary, where I saw how terribly burnt he was. It was very traumatic,” she added.

In October, Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku revealed in the legislature that, of the 3 832 “avoidable and negligent deaths” in public hospitals in 2018, 2 307 were new-born babies, and 238 were maternal deaths.

There were 385 “negligent” deaths at Rahima Moosa in 2018.

Gauteng Department of Health spokesperson Philani Mhlungu said Tamminique’s baby was dead when she first arrived at Rahima Moosa, and the mother “opted to go home and return the following day”.   

Mhlungu said medical staff tried to induce Tamminique for a natural birth that failed and a C-section was employed, where she “delivered a macerated still-born baby, which is an indication that her baby had been dead in the womb for longer”.

“Head of the unit met the mother to explain what transpired during the whole process. There were no additional procedures done to impair future fertility to the mother,” Mhlungu said.