Diali Kaba’s mom woke her up on Thursday morning with terrifying information: there had been a hearth on the hospital of their city in Senegal the place Kaba’s two-week-old daughter was being cared for, and 11 infants had been useless.
The 2 ladies rushed to the hospital collectively and Kaba was allowed in to search out out if her youngster was among the many victims, whereas her mom Ndeye Absa Gueye waited anxiously exterior.
Gueye mentioned she heard concerning the hearth on the Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh hospital on Wednesday night time however didn’t instantly notice it had taken place contained in the neonatal division. The information reached her early on Thursday, hanging terror into her coronary heart.
“I’ve my grand-daughter right here, she has been right here for 2 weeks. I’ve come to see if she is one in every of them,” she mentioned.
A couple of minutes later, Kaba emerged in tears. Her child was among the many useless. The 2 ladies embraced, each weeping, till Kaba was helped right into a automotive and pushed dwelling to grieve.
Tivaouane, positioned about 120 kilometres east of Senegal’s capital Dakar, is a busy highway transport hub and holy metropolis that commonly attracts massive numbers of Muslim pilgrims from everywhere in the west African nation.
Shared ache
The town was slowly waking as much as the stunning information of the 11 child deaths, which was confirmed late on Wednesday night time by President Macky Sall.
“All of us share this ache,” mentioned native resident Ousmane Kane. “They (the moms) suffered with the hope that their infants would dwell. However we now have to simply accept the desire of Allah. He gave them infants and took them again. The entire of Senegal is in mourning.”
Well being Minister Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr informed personal Senegalese TV station TFM that preliminary investigations steered a short-circuit had precipitated the hearth. Authorities offered no different particulars about how the catastrophe unfolded.
Public well being specialists have repeatedly warned that many underfunded, understaffed African hospitals had been stretched past their capacities by the COVID pandemic, leaving them unable to keep up acceptable security requirements.
The tragedy in Tivaouane comes after a number of different incidents at Senegalese hospitals angered the nation.
In April, a girl died in labour alongside together with her unborn child after hospital workers refused to carry out a Caesarean part.
Final yr, 4 new child infants had been killed by a hearth at a hospital within the northern city of Linguere, inflicting a nationwide outcry.
