The Cameroonian Minister of Health led a meeting on April 6, 2023 in Douala at the Laquintinie hospital, following suspicions of baby theft made by a patient who had come to give birth there prematurely. The latter – who demanded that her baby be presented to her, even dead – said she was convinced by the explanations provided by Manaouda Malachie and the delegation accompanying her.
With our correspondent in Yaoundé, Polycarp Essomba
In Cameroon, the Minister of Health, Manaouda Malachie, chaired this April 6, 2023 in Douala a crisis meeting at the Laquintinie hospital, shaken for a few days by a big suspicion of baby theft in this hospital formation.
A pregnant young lady, who had been admitted there for treatment, demanded that her baby be presented to her, even if it was dead. Finally, at the end of this meeting, the case was closed on a finding of ” non-theft baby “.
“ Ithere was no baby theft »
On one side of the room, there was the Minister of Health, who had come specially from Yaoundé with a large delegation, the local administrative and security authorities, the director of the incriminated hospital, and on the other, the patient, Bell Esther, as well as about ten members of her family. And after three hours behind closed doors, the main announcement from the mouth of Manaouda Malachie was: “ Mrs. Bell led a pregnancy which, unfortunately, could not pass the course of six months. And so, the specialists, the gynecologists, told us about a late abortion. We revisited his entire clinical course, and we came to some conclusions. The first conclusion is that we must know that there was no theft of a baby, since there was no baby, so for there to be theft, it must still be that there was a baby, and there was no baby theft. »
Conclusions finally shared by the family, as will certify it Mrs. Bell Esther, the patient, who will, moreover, declare the case closed: ” I would like to say that I leave here with answers, because I had a lot of questions after what happened. So I go out, and mourn, because I know what happened to the fetus in question. I can only give glory to God and stop there. »
The director of the hospital recognizes some dysfunctions
The director of the Laquintinie hospital, Professor Emmanuel Essomba, recognized some dysfunctions, mainly a sometimes muddled communication around this affair. All things that have reinforced suspicions within the public.
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