Woman to sue health department after giving birth to 'decapitated' baby: report

A 19-year-old woman who delivered a "decapitated" baby is planning to sue the Gauteng health department.

According to eNCA, the woman had suffered with abdominal pain for a few weeks before she went into labour. The woman, who has not been named, spoke to eNCA.

She then went to a general practitioner, who found that something was wrong with the baby and suggested she go to hospital for further assessment.

The pain persisted, so she went to Tambo Memorial hospital in Boksburg, where a scan was done, eNCA said.

The hospital confirmed the baby was abnormal, but said a heartbeat could be heard.

“Three days later, she went into labour. She was pushing, but the baby was not coming out. A doctor came and used forceps to take the baby out,” eNCA reported. “That’s when she said she saw the head of her baby without their rest of the body.”

According to eNCA, the woman spent 24 hours with the rest of her baby’s body inside her.

Head of obstetrics at Tambo Memorial Hospital, Dr Gilbert Anyetei, said the woman was in labour and it progressed. However, he said the baby’s head was not crowning despite the progression in labour.

“Normally, when the head is not crowning we assist. We call it assisted delivery. In this particular instance … the head popped out on its own and we tried to see if the rest of the body would follow, but the rest of the body didn’t follow,” Anyetei told eNCA on Monday.

“We had problems delivering the baby. We then decided to take her to theatre to deliver the rest of the body.”

eNCA said the mother was planning to sue the Gauteng health department.

TimesLIVE contacted the health department, but was referred to the hospital's CEO, who wouldn't immediately  comment.