The birthday of twins Karen and Kelly Junior will always be tinged by sadness as it also marks the day their mother died in childbirth — a tragic occurrence of increasing public debate in Zambia.
 
Their mother, Karen Kalengele, 33, was admitted to the Medcross hospital in Lusaka, one of the country’s most prestigious private medical facilities, on March 18 to give birth.
 
Her labour was slow and, as she was expecting twins, doctors chose to perform a Caesarean section.
 
It was apparently successful but, soon after the birth, her husband Kelly Chuunga, 45, was informed of her death.
 
“We were with my sisters in a room where the babies had been brought and we were busy taking pictures while my wife was dying on the operating table,” Chuunga, a finance manager, told AFP.
 
For any explanation, he relies on a death certificate that concludes his wife succumbed to a pulmonary embolism — a sudden blockage of an artery in the lungs.
 
“I don’t know whether it was negligence or it was an accident. It has left me with a lot of questions I don’t have answers to,” he said, adding he didn’t want to pursue a legal case against the hospital.
 
No-one at Medcross was reachable for comment when contacted by AFP.
 
The reluctance to discuss or complain about cases of maternal death in Zambia has been challenged recently by the death of 29-year-old journalist Sithembile Zulu, who worked for the government-run Daily Mail.
 
She died in September after giving birth to a girl in Lusaka, prompting an outcry in the media and triggering widespread demands for better understanding of maternal deaths.

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/10/maternal-deaths-nigeria-worst-zambia/