Kumate’s death: Read the official report!

Report on the incident that occurred on March 12, 2016 at the Ashanti Diamant Maternity of Laquintinie Hospital

On Saturday, March 12, 2016, around 10:30 minutes, the lifeless body of the named Koumateke Monique, 30-year old was taken to the Laquintinie hospital in Douala by her family, from the Nylon District Hospital, transported in the rear trunk of a taxi.

At the Laquintinie hospital in Douala, they headed to the service of medical and surgical emergencies, where a family member addressed a health worker for a pregnant woman who was not feeling fine.

The said staff immediately directs them to the new maternity.
At the maternity, the family requested for the service personnel for their patient; they called the attention of a midwife and a Major of an operating room and made the following observation:

Pregnant woman in the rear trunk of a taxi, head partially wrapped with a towel, pupil in mydriasis, nonreactive, lack of carotid pulse and maternal heart sounds, fetal.

They announce to the family that the above-named and her fetus do not exhibit any signs of life. With that, they directed them to the morgue.
Rendering this unit, one of the service morguiers raised the possibility of survival of the fetus on the basis of some abdominal movements observed and sent the family back to the maternity.

Once at the maternity, working nurses maintained the diagnosis of maternal and infant deaths. What triggered altercations between the family and care staff.
The nursing staff feeling insecure referred themselves to the gynecologist on duty who would have made the legal act of death certificate, but the lady was rapidly on surgery. The urge grew within the family, which attracted a crowd of onlookers. Faced with this growing aggressiveness of the crowd, the staff decided to close the front door of the maternity and to call for help.

Most unfortunately, before officials visited the site, the family formed a protective hedge around the remains they had removed out of the taxi and around the main entrance to the maternity.

The various officials and the law enforcement seized converged on the site of the maternity, all to find that the victim had already been served by the action of one of her relatives with a surgery at the entrance of the maternity and extracted there two stillborn fetuses, she then deposited them on the body with the regard of a crowd that became more and more agitated.

After the observation of the by the Judicial Police, the arrival of the prosecutor permited the bodies to be transferred to the morgue. And the Prosecutor conducted the hearing of some family members and health personnel involved at the time. Following these hearings, three employees of the hospital Laquintinie (midwife, nurse and morguier) and a family member of the deceased were placed in custody on the instructions of the latter.

Douala March 13, 2016
The Director of the Laquintinie hospital
Dr Jean II Dissongo