Three weeks ago, Ramata Gueye died after giving birth to a son, Mohamed, who was seven months pregnant. This Thursday (26), her bereaved husband, El Hadj Gueye, learned that Mohamed was one of 11 babies killed by a fire in the neonatal sector of the hospital where he was born.
The couple had been trying to conceive for seven years, said Moustapha Cisse, a cousin of the child’s father, who was among the family of the dead babies gathered outside the hospital in the Senegalese town of Tivaouane.
“It’s heartbreaking to see him lose his wife and now his son,” Cisse said. “I can’t even look him in the eye.”
The mayor of Tivaouane, Diop Sy, told RFM radio that a short circuit caused the fire on Wednesday night (25) and spread in less than five minutes. He said two nurses escaped but were unable to save the babies in their incubators.
President Macky Sall has declared three days of national mourning, but criticism is already being leveled at the state of the country’s hospitals, which have been hit by a series of deadly incidents.
“Is it God’s plan or is it just that Senegal’s hospitals are failing? We need to put this question to the government,” said Cisse.
Four babies died in a hospital fire in the northern city of Linguere last year, and a woman and her baby died in April after a hospital denied her a caesarean section during prolonged labour.
“We ask that all necessary measures be taken to prevent a similar tragedy from happening again in our country,” declared the opposition coalition Yewwi Askan Wi, in relation to the deaths in Tivaouane.
Interior Minister Antoine Felix Abdoulaye Dione said the president had ordered the opening of an investigation into the fire, as well as an audit of neonatal units across the country.
Pandemic and overload
Public health experts have warned that many African hospitals have been overwhelmed by the Covid pandemic and fail to maintain acceptable safety standards.
Amadou Kanar Diop, a risk and safety expert who inspected the burned-out hospital unit, said the walls were charred and the staff on duty appeared to be overworked.
Tivaouane, about 120 km (75 mi) east of the capital Dakar, is a holy city that attracts Muslim pilgrims from across the country.
Diali Kaba, whose two-week-old daughter was in the neonatal ward, was woken up on Thursday by her mother, who learned of the fire.
The two women rushed to the hospital together and Kaba was allowed inside to find out if her son was among the victims, while his mother anxiously waited outside.
A few minutes later, she broke down in tears. Her daughter was among the dead. The two women embraced, both crying, until Kaba was helped into a car and taken home in mourning.
