Three midwives sentenced after the death of a pregnant woman in hospital

Three midwives were sentenced on Wednesday by a Senegalese court to a six-month suspended prison sentence for “failure to assist a person in danger”, after the death in a public hospital of a pregnant woman who waited in vain for a caesarean section and whose fate tragedy has shaken the country.

Three other midwives, also tried by this high court in Louga (north), were acquitted.

The judgement was pronounced Wednesday morning by the president of the hearing, Ahmet Issa Sall, in the presence of the six defendants and many health workers who came to support their colleagues who were being prosecuted.

According to the Senegalese press, Astou Sokhna, in her thirties, married and nine months pregnant, died in Louga hospital after having waited in great suffering for about twenty hours for the caesarean she was asking for.

The staff reportedly refused her request, arguing that her operation was unplanned, and threatened to kick her out if she insisted.

The prosecution had requested a year in prison, including one month against four of the six defendants and the release for the other two, during the trial on April 27.

The director of the hospital has since been removed and replaced.

This tragedy sparked a wave of indignation on social networks against the shortcomings of the public health system and provoked reactions at the highest level of the Senegalese state.

President Macky Sall had issued a message of condolence and instructed them to determine who was responsible.