A baby born a month ago has disappeared under mysterious circumstances at the Mount Meru Hospital. Parents of the baby claim that their child was stolen while the hospital’s management claims that the baby died and was buried without notice.
Mama Warda Mussa Sere, a resident of Unga-Limited narrated that she delivered the baby on October 7 this year by caesarean section and that after giving birth she remained unconscious for 24 hours.
“My husband, Mr Mustafa Shaaban, came and saw the baby and even read the file about the child’s death,” said Mama Warda Mussa. She added that after regaining consciousness, the baby was nowhere to be seen again and after asking the nurses as well as medical attendants they seemed to be uncooperative.
Dr Jacqueline Uriwo, the In- Charge at Mount Meru Hospital said she received reports of the preterm born baby on the said date and that the 900 gram heavy, premature cherub died. “The mother was in intensive care unit so we could not tell her about the death,” said the Medical Officer.
“Doctors tried to save the child by placing him inside an incubator but unfortunately it died,” said Dr Uriwo. Except that the mother is not buying the story, she insists that her baby was stolen and that this is a notorious trend at the regional hospital.
“I cannot leave the hospital even after being discharged, not without my baby,” said the mother who since delivery was still undergoing treatment at the hospital. But maybe the hospital management won’t let her leave either; she owes Mount Meru more than 400,000/- as medical costs.
The In-charge of Arusha Funeral Home Service which handles the morgue, Dr Francis Coster admits that he received the body of the baby boy on the 8th of October 2016, a day after the caesarean section birth.
“The body stayed here up to the 16th of October this year, without any relative coming up to claim it,” he said. According to Dr Coaster, normally little babies’ bodies cannot withstand staying in the mortuary for many days so they went to the Arusha City Council to seek permission to bury all the bodies of unclaimed babies at the Njiro cemetery.
“But in case the parents still do not believe that their baby died then we can always exhume the body and run DNA tests on it,” said Dr Coaster.