The baby was declared dead at the regional hospital in Kaolack, in the center of the country, before morgue services found him still alive. The child finally died several hours later. The public prosecutor opened an investigation last Saturday, but the statement was not published until Sunday.
With our correspondent in Dakar, Birahim Toure
She had already been baptized and was called Diary. According to his father, it was the hospital morgue services that alerted their colleagues in the pediatric ward: the baby that had just been delivered to them in a simple cardboard package was still alive. Brought back to the neonatology department, the ten-day-old child finally succumbed after several hours spent in intensive care.
At a press conference, Dr. Kalidou Ly, spokesperson for the doctors, explained that the child had breathing difficulties from birth: neonatal jaundice with cerebral complications which then required placement in phototherapy. Dr. Ly specifies that it was a nurse’s aide who declared the death of the baby without informing the midwife or the doctor on duty who was busy with another delivery.
Last Friday, the baby’s dad decided to file a complaint with the Kaolack central police station. An investigation was then opened and it was the central police commissioner who himself went to the hospital structure. According to the public prosecutor’s press release, the investigation is ongoing.
This tragedy comes as the Astou Sokhna case – from the name of this young nine-month pregnant woman who died in childbirth at Louga hospital – has marked the country in recent weeks. For the midwives, charged with not assisting a person in danger, the prosecutor requested the release of two of them and a one-year suspended prison sentence and one month in prison for four others.
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