A young Limpopo mother says doctors removed her womb during childbirth surgery without her knowledge or consent, leaving her in pain and struggling to come to terms with what happened.
Dimakatso Madimabe* (20) says she was eight months pregnant when she went for a routine check-up at Bothashoek Clinic on 14 August 2024.
She says nurses became concerned about her high blood pressure and referred her to Dilokong Hospital, which then classified her as high risk and transferred her to St Rita’s District Regional Hospital in Praktiseer, about 120km from her home.
Madimabe* says she was not in labour at the time.
Inside the theatre room
Madimabe* says that when she arrived at hospital, staff contacted her parents. She was put on a drip and taken to the theatre.
“I was attended and treated by inexperienced student doctors doing their experiential learning,” she says.
According to Madimabe* she did not sign any document giving consent for surgery.
“I did not sign any document or papers giving consent to be assisted to give birth by caesarean operation.”
She says she later overheard nurses and doctors talking.
“I overheard the conversation when nurses and doctors were discussing how they erroneously removed my womb.”
Madimabe* says she stayed in hospital for seven days before she was discharged.
Pain after hospital discharge
Photo Credit: Thomo Nkgadima
Madimabe* says when she got home, she could not sleep because of the pain.
“It was my birthday, August 21, when I started to be restless, holding the bed and feeling deep pain. I did not sleep that night.”
According to Madimabe*, a family doctor who later treated her wound told the family that her womb had been removed and advised them to consider legal action.
She says the doctor treated her wound and gave her antibiotics because of an infection.
“The doctor treated my wound. I saw blood came out when I went to the toilet.”
Madimabe* says the wound was not healing properly and she had to return for follow-up treatment.
Her parents told Health-e News that they are angry and believe their daughter’s future was changed without her consent.
“They nearly killed our daughter, now we are worried the hospital removed her womb without her knowledge,” her parents say.
“They have doomed her future ahead of her and shattered her dream of having another child.”
The family says they later approached the hospital to demand answers.
When no clear explanation was given, they instructed Mashabela Attorneys, a Limpopo-based law firm, to pursue the matter against the Limpopo Health Department.
Madimabe* says she did not receive psychosocial counselling from the hospital after the operation. She says she later received counselling in private care.
Her mother says she missed more than two weeks of work while caring for her daughter. The family also says the trauma affected Madimabe’s* matric exams.
Madimabe* has since gone back to school to complete matric. Her dream, she says, is to become a nurse.
Health Department’s response
Limpopo Department of Health spokesperson Neil Shikwambane says the department could not comment on the matter because it currently involves the family’s legal team and the department.
Shikwambane says the department is aware of the complaint and would investigate the matter.
Managment at St Rita’s Regional Hospital also did not want to comment on the case.
A wider pattern of illegal sterilisation
Madimabe’s* account comes as legal groups and oversight bodies continue to raise alarm about obstetric violence and non-consensual sterilisation in South Africa.
In February 2026, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) at Wits University joined 11 other organisations, including the Sexual Reproductive Justice Coalition, the Women’s Legal Centre and Section27, in backing a memorandum to the Health Department calling for an end to obstetric violence and forced sterilisation in South Africa’s maternity healthcare system.
They called for mandatory training for maternity staff on informed consent, contraception and sterilisation.
In 2023, the Commission for Gender Equality called the National Department of Health to account over the lack of progress in implementing recommendations following its investigation into complaints lodged by advocacy group, the Her Rights Initiative (HRI) in 2020 on the forced sterilisation of HIV-positive black women.
*Not her real name.
