Mother cries out as Tembisa Hospital nurses swapped her newborn baby and gave her a dead one

Where is my real baby, who is raising my baby as theirs while I am still alive and well?”

– DNA confirms couple’s suspicion that the dead baby nurses gave her after childbirth was indeed not hers

– Body of infant mom rejected still in hospital nearly 10 months after she gave birth
These are the emotional words of Vhutsilo Mudau after finding out that the dead baby that was presented to her by nurses hours after giving birth as her child was not hers.

Her worst fears and that of the baby’s father, Hebert Mutshena, were confirmed this week when DNA results couldn’t link her to the baby still kept in the hospital’s morgue.

“I called my lawyer (Rudzani Sikhala) on Tuesday to establish how far is the case. He informed me that he had gone to the police station last week Thursday and has established from the docket that the DNA results were saying the child did not match Vhutshilo,” Mutshena said.

Mudau, 29, steadfastly refused to accept that the dead baby was hers as she believed the baby was swapped by nurses at the Tembisa Hospital on the East Rand where she delivered her baby in February.

“How does the person that’s raising my baby feel about raising the child that’s not theirs? I carried that child for nine months because I wanted to have a child,” Mudau said.

Now the family wants answers and is contemplating taking legal action against the hospital.

Sikhala told Sowetan that for professional reasons, he would only speak on the matter which he said was “very sensitive” in the presence of his clients.

The body of the baby Mudau rejected as hers is still at the hospital as police try to piece together what could have happened at the maternity ward where several women gave birth.

Police spokesperson Cpt Kay Makhubele said police would only be able to comment on the DNA results today.

Mudau, amother of two, was experiencing labour pains when she was rushed to the hospital by Mutshena on February 1. She said she waited for almost two hours before giving birth after 6pm.

Six hours after giving birth, Mudau was told that her child did not make it after birth, however, she believed fromthe onset that the baby was swapped by nurses and that shewas presented with a child that was not hers.

Mudau said after giving birth, one of the two nurses who was helping her deliver the baby “just took my baby without even saying a word or even telling me the baby’s gender. In actual fact, I never saw my baby or was told anything about it”.

Hospital spokesperson Noko Pela said the hospital has been in constant contact with the investigating officer and was told that the DNA results were not yet available.

“The matter is now in the hands of the police as they performed the DNA tests. As the hospital, we wish to bring an end to the matter so that the parents can find closure,” Pela said.

Mutshena said: “I want nothing but the truth so that I can be free emotionally. It’s now going to December, people are buying their children clothes, what about me?”

He said it had been a painful 10 months for them.

“I want to enjoy Christmas with my family like all other families. I don’t trust anyone right now, not even the government. ”