Newborn Twins burnt to death in hospital

Five-day-old twins were allegedly burnt to death in a nursery at Harare Central Hospital, Zimbabwe in a suspected case of negligence.

Although details of the case were still sketchy, it is believed that last Tuesday the mother of the twins, Belinda Balalika, discovered the deaths when she went for a breastfeeding session at midnight, reports iHarare on Monday.

The twins were reportedly recovering from jaundice and had been put in the isolation ward for monitoring and recovery.

A source said the babies had been placed in an open cradle with a beam of light to provide heating.

“Something malfunctioned and the babies were burnt to death, but what is saddening is the fact that the staff did not check on the babies on time,” said the source.

Harare Central Hospital CEO Nyasha Masuka said the details of what transpired were still being compiled and results would be released tomorrow.

“We will be able to give details later.” he said.

However, the forensic post-mortem carried out indicated the cause of death to be dehydration.