Mpilo Hospital negligent, says magistrate

A Bulawayo magistrate sitting as a coroner yesterday ruled that the death of 23-year-old man who died on an operation table at Mpilo Central Hospital was as a result of negligence.

Tinashe Tashaya also ordered the office of the Prosecutor General to investigate why Mpilo Central Hospital staff failed to avail a detailed report on the death of Darlington Mangwiro, 23, who died in the theatre before a minor operation on his nose that had developed a growth.

"I have no doubt there was some negligence on the part of the medical team that attended to the now deceased. This is the reason why the surgeon has failed to provide a detailed report on what transpired on that day up to date," said Tashaya at the close of an inquest into Mangwiro's death.

He said the PG's office should investigate why a detailed report by the surgeon explaining what transpired could not be obtained as per procedure in the medical field.

Tashaya said the PG's office should also establish whether or not junior doctors are allowed to attend to a patient and perform all the anaesthetic procedures without supervision from a senior or a consultant as was the case in Mangwiro's case.

He said the investigations should also find out why detailed clinical and medical histories of Mangwiro were not submitted to the pathologist during the post-mortem.

"Investigations on why the pathologist did not receive the documents must be carried out with the view of charging whoever was negligent in the circumstances," he said.

After the death of Mangwiro, his family was further traumatised when the hospital authorities sent an invoice demanding payment for his stay in hospital indicating that he had been discharged alive yet he died hours after hospitalisation and the hospital issued a postmortem report.

The hospital authorities demanded $240 for Darlington's purported 20-day stay at the insitution and threatened to hand over the late young man's family to debt collectors to recover the money.

His father Mutero Mangwiro said his son was admitted on April 23 for a minor operation, but events that followed pointed to a possible foul play.

"He was booked into the theatre at 8.15AM on April 24. At 9.30AM he was certified dead. That is what is on the postmortem report. My son, according to the report, died on the operating table yet the letter of demand states that he was discharged on the 13th of May and I should therefore pay for the services," said Mangwiro.

Darlington, who was a final year geology student at the Zimbabwe School of Mines in Bulawayo, was described by his father as a serious church goer.

Mangwiro said Darlington was single and did not drink or smoke.

He was supposed to have graduated last August.

Mangwiro said the bill sent to him showed that something is rotten at the hospital.

This is not the first time that Mpilo Central Hospital has been accused of causing the death of patients through negligence.

A Bulawayo woman, whose premature twin baby girl died a few days after she was placed in an incubator at the institution two years ago, filed a $1 million lawsuit against the hospital and the Ministry of Health and Child Care.

According to the summons Nobuhle Nkomo, demanded $500,000 from each of the respondents.

In court papers she said: "On July 10, 2013 at about 12PM, I went for routine breast feeding and was shocked to find my twin babies placed in an incubator despite that they never suffered from hypothermia.

"I helplessly watched my babies being roasted and crying in pain as a result of over-exposure to the heater."