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Thandeka Moyo, Health Reporter
A Bulawayo man whose son died on an operating table at Mpilo Central Hospital has bemoaned delays in completing investigations which started more than two years ago.
Mr Mutemo Mangwiro said officials at the Medical and Dental Practitioners Council (MDPC) told him not to hurry them as they were merely doing voluntary work.
A Bulawayo magistrate Tinashe Tashaya ruled that the death of Darlington Mangwiro (23) was due to Mpilo doctors’ negligence.
He ordered the Prosecutor General to investigate why the surgeons who attended Mangwiro had failed to give a detailed report of what transpired in May 2015.
Magistrate Tashaya said investigations should establish whether junior doctors are allowed to attend to a patient and perform all the anaesthetic procedures without supervision from a consultant as was the case with Mangwiro.
“My son died two years ago. After his inquest a magistrate ordered that they investigate negligence. Nothing has been done so far and we are still waiting for the outcome of the investigations,” said Mr Mangwiro.
He said at one time an official from MDPC told him not to put pressure on them because such investigations are voluntary.
“ My son was attended to by foreign doctors who left the hospital last year,” said Mr Mangwiro.
After Darlington’s death, his family was further traumatised when hospital authorities sent a bill demanding payment for his stay indicating that he had been discharged alive yet he died at the hospital and the hospital conducted a postmortem.
The authorities demanded $240 for Darlington’s purported 20-hour-stay at the institution and threatened to hand over the late young man’s family to debt collectors to recover the money. Responding to questions, MDPC registrar Ms Josephine Mwakutuya said Mangwiro’s case was still being investigated.
“The complainant was advised that council will update him on the progress of investigations on June 23. The matter has been sent to the Anaesthetic Association to provide an opinion on the anaesthetic management and we are waiting for a response,” said Ms Mwakutuya.
She said the council was established in Terms of the Health Professions Act to control the practice of medicine and dentistry in Zimbabwe.
“Such matters are sent to the Preliminary Investigating Committee (PIC) which meets monthly to look at complaints though they may request expert opinion from professional associations which have their own scheduled meetings.
“Information is then sent to an executive committee which meets four times a year which also has different members to review the case and satisfy itself that all evidence has been gathered.”
Darlington who was a second year student at the Zimbabwe School of Mines, had developed a growth on his nose which the doctors wanted to remove when he died.
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