The newborn baby boy who was found in a black plastic bag outside a panel beating premises in Marabastad on Saturday morning has died, Pretoria police said on Tuesday.
The infant was born one and a half months premature after his mother allegedly induced the birth. Inspector Percy Morokane said he received a call from the representative of the Pretoria Academic Hospital around 5pm that the baby was in a critical condition. ”She told me that the baby’s heart beat was very slow and less then normal. At around 6pm I received a phone call that the baby had passed away.”
Chief executive officer from the Pretoria Academic Hospital, Dr Ernest Kenoshi, said the baby died of septicaemia.
”Doctors had tried everything but the baby did not make it.”
Kenoshi said the infant probably became infected during and after his birth. The baby weighed 1,1 kilograms at birth and was in an incubator. Morokane said the two women who appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Monday on a charge of attempting to murder the baby would now face murder charges.
Healthcare worker Elizabeth Molome (40) of Almansdrift in Mpumalanga, and the child’s 34-year-old mother of Kanana village near Hammanskraal, were not asked to plead.
They will remain in custody until their next court appearance on March 17. The case was postponed for further investigation. – Sapa