Driftwood

[gentle music] We had a doctor here from South Africa, Dr. du Toit, and I use the term doctor loosely.

Catherine Turner, who runs the Human Rights Commission on St Helena, was involved in this case as well.

It was an awful incident from 2012.

A woman who we can't name was just over thirty weeks pregnant.

Around forty weeks is full term, so she was heavily pregnant, but still very much not ready to give birth.

She had a coughing fit one day, a cough so bad she developed a really concerning pain which shot down her lower back.

Worrying at the best of times, but when you're pregnant, even more worrying.

So she went to Jamestown Hospital the very next day.

There, she met this Dr. du Toit.

He insisted she was in labor.

She wasn't.

She said she only had backache.

She was telling him she didn't have contractions.

It was not her first child either, so she knew what contractions would have felt like.

The mother said she didn't want cesarean section.

He still put her under.

This was a fully competent woman, no learning difficulties or anything like that.

Under general anesthetic to perform a cesarean section.

This woman was anxious.

The cesarean was premature.

She knew it.

The baby girl was delivered, but all was not well.

The little newborn was immediately incubated.

Mother and father were not allowed to see her until the next day, and when they did, it was clear to them from her condition that all was not good.

The baby died three or four days later.