[caption id="attachment_101578" align="aligncenter" width="597"] WHAT’S THE FUSS? Triplets Onalo, Olwam and Olwethu Maselwa, born prematurely, are now three months old. Picture: MIKE HOLMES[/caption]
Company donates hi-tech equipment, trains staff at new Dora Nginza unit
TWENTY months ago, Dora Nginza Hospital’s head of paediatrics put his job on the line when he spoke out about lifethreatening equipment shortages at the hospital.
Yesterday, Dr Lungile Pepeta’s bravery was rewarded when, with the help of a generous donor, a state-of-the-art paediatric centre was opened.
Adding to the joy at the hospital was the miracle survival of premature triplets – who had been looked after by the unit’s newly trained staff.
Last year, a frustrated Pepeta told how hundreds of babies had died as a result of the Eastern Cape Department of Health’s failure to supply life-saving equipment worth R5-million.
The story had a profound effect on the business director of Philips Patient Monitoring Solutions for Africa, which came to the rescue.
“I am very grateful,” Pepeta said yesterday. “They gave us ECG machines [used to monitor heartbeats] and vital signs monitors worth R1.8-million.
“There is no more talk about firing me now,” he said, laughing.
Nurses were hard at work at the Early Detection Centre, the first of its kind in Africa, at Dora Nginza yesterday.
The unit contains all the lifesaving equipment Pepeta and his nurses need to monitor and save the little patients in their care.
It was the idea of Philips Patient Monitoring Solutions for Africa business director Helen Brown.
Philips donated R1.8-million worth of equipment and trained the staff.
Brown said the company’s distributors in Port Elizabeth had faxed her The Herald’s front-page article in January last year in which Pepeta spoke about their struggles. The article also told the tragic story of little Makayla Kruger, who died a day after her birth.
“I was so deeply, deeply touched by the story and by the trauma of Makayla Kruger, who only lived for a day,” Brown said. “I wanted to make a difference. “We got in touch with Dr Pepeta and asked him what he needed.”
Yesterday, after careful planning and implementation, Health MEC Pumza Dyantyi and Eastern Cape Health superintendent-general Dr Thobile Mbengashe officially opened the Early Detection Centre.
Brown said her company had, over 18 months, trained the unit’s nurses in the use of the equipment.
The training had paid off, giving premature triplets Olwam, Onalo and Olwethu Maselwa a fighting chance at survival.
Born on June 21 when their mother, Ntombizodwa, 34, was just 28 weeks pregnant, the triplets together weighed the same as a full-term baby.
Triplets surviving a premature birth at a busy state hospital was incredibly rare, hospital dietician Robyn Rose said.
Maselwa, of Booysen Park, brought her three-month-old triplets to the hospital yesterday to show the staff how well they were doing.
The triplets, who weighed 1.36kg, 1.26kg and 1.12kg when they were born, have all doubled their birth weight.
-Estelle Ellis