Suspected meningitis after tot death

“Hello my baby,” Jolene Venter greeted her five-day-old daughter when she visited her in hospital on Saturday.

Five minutes later, tiny Crystal-Lee turned blue in the face and stopped breathing. She died, allegedly from meningitis.

Suspecting that her child had contracted the disease in Mamelodi Hospital, Venter is now waiting for a post-mortem to reveal why the life of her “little angel” was cut so short.

“She had not even started life yet. My world is standing still. I tried to explain to my son, JC, 5, that Jesus will now raise his sister,” Venter said, crying.

The hospital did a lumbar puncture before Crystal-Lee’s death, and some of her symptoms led Venter to think that her baby might have had meningitis. However, by yesterday she had yet to be told the results of the tests.

If Crystal-Lee had been infected with meningitis in hospital, it would make her the third baby who had apparently caught this contagious disease in Gauteng state hospitals during the past week, Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Health spokesman, said.

He said this was worrying as it “shows poor infection control at the hospitals”.

Crystal-Lee was born last Tuesday in the Pretoria West Hospital. Mother and baby were discharged the next day and returned to their Bronkhorstspruit home.

“Crystal-Lee was okay on Thursday morning. However, she later turned yellow. I took her to a clinic. They referred us to the Bronkhorstspruit Hospital. They put my daughter on a drip and oxygen before transferring her to the Mamelodi Hospital,” Venter said.

They arrived there at 3.30pm and waited in the casualty unit. A doctor only came to see them three hours later.

“They drew blood and left us. Only at 2am on Friday did they give my baby a bed. I asked several times if we could be transferred to the Steve Biko Academic Hospital, but they refused,” Venter said.

Crystal-Lee was diagnosed with jaundice and placed under blue lights. At 3am Venter was told to leave, as the hospital did not have facilities for mothers.

She said that during the following day, she was only allowed to see her baby during visiting hour. If she remained longer, she was escorted out by a security official.

Four hours later Venter returned. Her baby had been taken off the oxygen and the lights removed, with the doctor saying the jaundice was better. But the hospital again drew blood and did a lumbar puncture on that “tiny body”, Venter said.

On Saturday morning her mother noticed that Crystal-Lee was breathing fast and heaving as if she had cramps.

“The personnel checked her chest and heart and again put her on oxygen. I stayed until noon before I was escorted out again,” Venter said.

Venter asked the doctor several times for the lumbar puncture results, but he did not have them. Venter said no one ever told her what was wrong with her child.

At 6pm on Saturday she again visited Crystal-Lee and greeted her with a “hello my baby”.

“I think I was about five minutes with her when she turned blue and stopped breathing. I was going crazy. The doctor resuscitated her and called for an ambulance to transfer her to the Steve Biko Hospital,” Venter said.

The paramedic who arrived with the ambulance looked at the baby, and said her eyes were dilated. Tests were done, but Crystal-Lee showed no reaction.

“The ambulance guy said ‘She is brain dead’. How did the doctor not notice it? Or if he did, why did he not say anything?

“I told them not to remove the oxygen then, I just wanted her for a few more seconds. I picked my baby up. She was cold. I held her against me, hoping my body heat would warm her. But she was gone,” Venter said.

She had heard them mention meningitis at the hospital, but she was waiting for the post-mortem results, she said

“I’m still awaiting the lumbar puncture results. Did she contract meningitis there? I can’t think of any other place. All I know now is that her mommy, brother and grannies are missing her terribly,” Venter said.

Bloom said he was going to push the Gauteng Health Department to investigate this “appaling” incident. “It seems that poor hygiene is still causing baby deaths,” he said.

Neither the Mamelodi Hospital nor the Gauteng Health Department could be reached for comment last night.- Pretoria News