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MOTHER HEARS OF BABY’S HEART CONDITION, FLEES HOSPITAL

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SITEKI – A mother allegedly fled hospital and vanished soon after doctors had told her that her baby was suffering from a serious heart condition which needed treatment and possibly surgery.

The mother, who cannot be named to protect the minor, had brought her child, who is aged one year nine months old, to Good shepherd Mission Hospital in Siteki. Immediately after the woman had allegedly disappeared with the child, nurses searched for her all around the hospital premises and at Siteki bus rank, which is located about three kilometres from the facility.
However, she was nowhere to be found and, as such, nurses referred the matter to the social welfare department. Social workers immediately filed an ex parte application at Siteki Magistrates Court, seeking an order giving consent to the medical treatment of the child. An ex parte application is a request made to a court where only the party making the request is represented and the other party is not given any notice.

In her affidavit, Social worker Nobuhle Gule-Mavuso, who is employed by the social welfare department but based at Good Shepherd Mission Hospital, informed court that the child was very sickly and in a ‘deteriorating state’. “As per the Children’s Protection and Welfare Act 2012, Section 239 subsection 6(a), states that the Children’s court may consent to medical treatment of the child if parents unreasonably refuse to give consent. “In the same Children’s Protection and Welfare act of 2012, section 9 subsection (2), it states that a child shall not be denied or hindered from medical treatment by reasons of religious or other beliefs,” she submitted.

She submitted that the child was first brought to the hospital by her biological mother early this year. “According to the paediatric doctor, the condition of the child initially appeared as pneumonia but as observations and tests were being made, a CT (computerised tomography) scan was made in Mbabane through referral from Good Shepherd Hospital and it showed that the child had possible TB (Tuberculosis),” further submitted Mavuso, the social worker.

 

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