Douala: Woman and Her Sick Newborn Baby Abandoned Outside Hospital for Three Nights

A mother and her newborn baby have been abandoned on a bench in the waiting room of the Bonassama hospital in Douala.

According to sources, the woman and her infant spent several nights in the waiting room without medical attention for her ailing daughter because all the beds in the said hospital had been occupied.

TCR gathered that the two were only able to get a bed in the said hospital after the case had been publicized on social media and that thanks to the fact that some three patients admitted in the pediatrics ward of that hospital, vacated their rooms on Monday March 26, 2018 in solidarity with the two.

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The pathetic situation of the woman, whose name TCR had not had at press time on Friday, was discovered and disclosed by a journalist who also put the mishap on social media space.

Sources close to the story told us that the Director of the hospital received phone calls from several administrative authorities in the city of Douala that sought to know more about the rare incident after reading it on social networks.

We however gathered that, the director of the hospital had not made any official statement in relation to the case even as we took to press.

A nurse at the hospital told reporters that on Tuesday March 27, 2018, the entrance into the hospital remained close even during hours that it normally is open to the public. She added that it was so because the authorities of the hospital including the director, were grilling the woman and her newborn baby on their situation.

It is said that the young lady had given birth at the maternity ward of the Bonassama District Hospital on Friday, March 16, 2018. She returned to the hospital on March 23, to retrieve the results of the baby’s examinations. She was then told that the baby had to be admitted.

But for lack of beds, the young mother was forced to settle on the benches in the waiting room.

The sick infant and her mother spent three nights in these conditions, before another mother, compassionate, offered to have her baby sleep next to hers. She finally entered a ward on March 26th.

This case has caused most Cameroonians to recall the tragic and pitiful story of the late Monique Koumatekel, who reportedly died in front of a hospital in Douala in what many described as “negligence” on the part of hospital staff.

By a Correspondent