Couple sues government over baby swap

KAMPALA- A couple has sued the government over acts of gross negligence by Mulago National Referral Hospital after the health facility allegedly swapped their live baby boy with a dead baby girl who was not theirs, nine years ago.

Mr Farouk Bukenya and his wife Saudah Nabakiibi filed their lawsuit before the High Court in Kampala on May 29 seeking general and punitive damages.

The suit is against the Attorney General as the chief legal adviser of government and Dr Asinja Kapuru, the Mulago doctor who allegedly oversaw the delivery process of Ms Nabakiibi.

Court records, which this newspaper has seen, indicate that Dr Kapuru confessed to having swapped the couple’s live baby boy with a dead baby girl after he was pressured by a one Sr Goretti Tibifumura to alter the medical records.

“After a long protracted delay, the Medical Council commenced disciplinary proceedings against the second defendant (Dr Kapuru) for professional misconduct in relation to the alleged disappearance/loss of the plaintiff’s baby at Mulago hospital,” reads the lawsuit.

The law suit further states that at the hearings, documents were examined and witnesses testified, where Dr Kapuru confessed to having delivered Ms Nabakiibi of a male baby boy by C-section but was persuaded by a one Sr Goretti Tibifumura to alter the medical records to indicate that the baby was a female.”

“The plaintiff’s (couple) contention was that their live male baby was willfully and intentionally swapped with a female dead baby by Mulago hospital staff which act amounted to professional malpractice and gross misconduct…”

To further fault Mulago hospital, the couple states in their lawsuit that the DNA report that was tendered in by police from the Directorate of Government Analytical Laboratory after exhuming the remains of the baby girl, showed that indeed they were not the true biological parents of the dead baby.

Court records also indicate that at the conclusion of the inquiry by the Medical Council, Dr Kapuru was found guilty of gross professional misconduct and barred from practicing for two years.
The couple’s misery begun on July 12, 2006, when Ms Nabakiibi was rushed to Mulago by her husband after she went into labour. However, she did not give birth until the following day, when she was told that she had developed an emergency and was straight away taken to the theatre.

Records at court show that Ms Nabakiibi delivered a baby boy by C-section and that the baby scored highly according to medical records.

“The first plaintiff (Ms Nabakiibi) gained consciousness at around 4pm and demanded to see her baby but was informed by 2nd plaintiff (her husband) that the baby was not brought to him…” reads part of the complaint.

Later, a nurse came and read out Ms Nabakiibi’s name and told her husband that she had delivered a male baby...” the complaint further states.

Ms Nabakiibi adds that she became suspicious at 5pm when she was not seeing her child and that at 7pm, on asking a nurse, who had come into the labour ward about her child, she was told that her baby was in a Special Care Unit.

But the nurse’s response was contrary to another nurse’s response who informed her sister in-law, Faridah Nansamba, that the child had died and that its body was in the mortuary.

Ms Nabakiibi’s sister-in-law, then headed for the hospital mortuary and the couple was instead given a body of a dead female baby that they took to the village for burial.

Through their lawyers, Kavuma Kabenge & Co Advocates, the couple wants court to declare that Dr Kapuru and Mulago hospital, violated their constitutional right to family, to bring up and care for their child contrary to Article 31(4) & (5) of the Constitution.

The couple further wants court to order the healthy facility to give police medical records and information for the days of 12-13 July 2006 from the labour ward 5A to enable them investigate and trace the whereabouts of their lost child.

Subsequently, court has summoned the Attorney General and Dr Kapuru to file in their defence within 15 days from the date they receive the court summons.

The court has warned that if they don’t heed the court summons, it will go ahead and pass its verdict in their absentia.
The court summons, dated May 29, are signed off by Deputy Registrar Festo Nsenga.

Similar suit

This lawsuit on allegations of swapping new born children by staff of Mulago, comes at a time when the High Court is hearing a similar case in which another couple, Michael Mubangizi and Jennifer Musimenta, have sued Mulago hospital, accusing it of having denied them access to the medical records regarding the birth of their missing twin child.

The couple claims to have given birth to twins on March 12, 2012, but one of them mysteriously disappeared for which they are holding the hospital liable.

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