One of the leads to elucidate the death of Astou Sokhna, which occurred on March 31 at the Amadou Sakhir Mbaye Regional Hospital in Louga (North-West), suggests negligence on the part of the staff on duty.
The straw that breaks the camel’s back? For several days, this story has been the subject of intense media hype mobilized in Senegal fueling discussions on social networks. The chilling testimonies on the decay of the health system are piling up. Between out-of-reach costs and a lack of empathy on the part of health care personnel, hospitals are considered to be “places for people to die” by a fringe of the population.
However, Senegal is known for the quality of its human resources in this field. The Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Odontology of the Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD) of Dakar welcomes students of various African nationalities.
In fact, nobody seemed to show the slightest interest when Astou Sokhna, whose pregnancy had come to term, died in hospital. Her family, determined to bring the case to justice, reports that the deceased arrived at 9:30 a.m. at the maternity ward of the Regional Hospital Center Amadou Sakhir Mbaye of Louga to undergo a Caesarean section, but left this world in the early morning without having received adequate care.
In a press release issued Tuesday evening, the Ministry of Health and Social Action announced the dispatch of “three separate missions to the scene.” The first is responsible for carrying out an administrative inspection, the second to conduct a technical audit of the death and the third to provide psychosocial support to the grieving family.
The objective, says the source, beyond knowing the circumstances of the tragedy, is to locate the responsibilities and take appropriate measures. A sit-in to demand justice for Astou Sokhna is planned for next Friday at the ‘Place de la Nation’ in Dakar. An online petition, also in this sense, has already collected nearly 80,000 signatures.
ID/fss/abj/APA