Online Reporter
Zvikomborero Parafini
Harare Hospital principal nursing officer Vimbai Cassandra Makope has nailed her colleagues who are accused of participating in a baby selling scandal that rocked the hospital last year.
The two midwives, Betty Patricia Sena and Jestina Mashamba are appearing in court with their accomplices Dion Tore who bought the new born baby in question and Evelyn Zisengwe, the baby’s grandmother.
The quartet is facing human trafficking allegations and has pleaded not guilty.
Makope who testified as the State’s third witness told the court that it was not the first time that Sena has been implicated in a baby selling scandal and has had previous hearings at work.
The complainant is 16 years and is Zisengwe’s daughter.
The complainant fell pregnant in 2023 and while she was pregnant in January last year, her mother joined a WhatsApp group named Sora ne Miti where she saw a message that Tore was in need of a child.
Zisengwe and Tore made a plan to traffic the complainant’s unborn baby.
Tore allegedly invited the girl to Harare so as to create rapport between them.
Tore told the hold that she wanted to assist her by taking her for a scan and to buy preparation clothes for the baby.
On her arrival in Harare, the complainant met with Tore, who was in the company of her friend introduced to the complainant as Patience.
The scan was done at a clinic in the Central business district.
Patience then called her boyfriend by the name Masiye Mugwinya to meet them in Harare CBD. Masiye Mugwinya supplied them Jestina Mashamba’s contacts.
Mashamba is a nurse at Sally Mugabe hospital.
Tore then took the complainant to Sally Mugabe hospital without knowledge of where she was being taken to.
Upon arrival at the hospital, Tore called Mashamba and advised her that they were waiting for her outside the maternity ward.
It is alleged that Tore was given a pill for inducement which she administered to the complainant, who went into labour outside the ward.
The complainant was then taken to ‘admissions’ by Tore and supplied her particulars to Vimbai Casandra Makope and Loice Maipisi, who entered them in the Maternity Admission Register.
Tore approached the nurses on Maternity Admission where the complainant was being examined and advised them that she was the girl’s mother.
She told them that the complainant was confused hence supplied false names.
Tore went on to supply her particulars as if she was the one being admitted.
As a result, Loice Maipisi made a cancellation and re-entered the particulars supplied by Tore.
As from the Maternity Admission Register entry, all the complainant’s records including the child health card were bearing Tore’s names and particulars instead of complainant’s.
Mashamba allegedly administered another inducement pill to the complainant even though she was never on the doctor’s list for those patients in need of drugs for inducement as indicated by the Principal Nursing Officer Mutubuki Plaxedes.
After ingestion of the third pill, the complainant experienced severe labour pains and she delivered a pre-term baby on the early hours of 25 February 2024 at around 0500 hours.
The baby was not breathing well, and she was taken to Nursery.
The complainant stayed in the hospital for ten more days after delivery since the baby was not well.
During her stay at the hospital, Betty Patricia Sena who is also a nurse at the hospital, approached the complainant and introduced herself as a friend to Tore.
Sena allegedly facilitated the early discharge of the infant, who was still not well and falsified on the Postnatal discharge card that Doctor Verenga had authorized the discharge.
On the facilitation of the early discharge, Tore communicated with Sena on WhatsApp indicating that the child was not well but she was making ways to ensure she is discharged.
On March 5 last year the complainant was discharged from hospital and the baby was taken by Tore.
Sena supplied a postnatal discharge card for the complainant, and she handed it over to Tore who then handed it to the complainant bearing the complainant’s real names and Doctor Verenga as being the doctor who is discharging the patient.
The handwriting on the postnatal discharge card was examined and it was proved that it matches that of Betty Patricia Sena through the Questioned Document Examiner expert.
Investigations carried out proved that Doctor Verenga did not attend to the complainant and his duties at Sally Mugabe Central hospital are not to consult patients as an individual outside the team neither does he write any discharge summaries or discharge patients.
Tore and Sena connived to issue the complainant with the postnatal discharge card indicating that her baby had died acting as a cover up to their plan of trafficking the baby.
Furthermore, the postnatal discharge card indicated that the baby was born alive and later died and that is not the case as the baby is alive and was taken by Tore.
The baby, who was nine months old in November 2024, was recovered from Tore upon arrest.
This matter came to light in November 2024 at a church gathering in Murewa as complainant and her mother Zisengwe were having a misunderstanding over the issue.
Mathew Masinge