The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), following a complaint by the family of Fariena Mohammed, has launched an investigation into her death. Mohammed died nine days after her delivery at the GPHC.
Mohammed’s mother, Bibi Khan, said that her daughter died at the hospital on January 05, 2019, after suddenly developing breathing complications and that the institution has not been offering any explanations. She told <<<Inews>>> that the family officially lodged a complaint on Monday, January 21 and the hospital has since informed them that an investigation will be launched.
However, attempts to confirm whether the investigation has commenced proved futile as several calls to officials at the GPHC went unanswered.
A mother is now calling for justice and an investigation into her daughter’s death after giving birth at the GPHC on December 28, 2018.
Khan accused the doctors at the GPHC of “killing” her daughter and offering no plausible explanations for her death. The grief-stricken woman had said the 30-year-old Mohammed was pregnant with her second child and on Thursday, December 28, 2018, she went into labour shortly after 13:00h.
She was rushed to the GPHC and gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Shahid Ali, shortly after 16:00h. However, a few days after, the baby fell ill and doctors informed the family that the baby swallowed some of the amniotic fluid hence the reason for his complications. The baby boy was transferred to the Neonatal Unit and immediately began receiving treatment for the infection.
Mohammed was discharged but remained at the hospital since her infant was still hospitalised. Since she was in the ward and her baby in another section of the building, it required her walking a few flights of stairs to feed him every two hours.
During one of the feedings, a paediatrician noticed something strange with Mohammed and began probing. According to Khan, her daughter was breathing heavily and having shortness of breath which caught the attention of the paediatrician who asked the woman’s doctors to investigate further. It was from there, however, that the situation went downhill.
The doctors did an EKG and it came back normal after which they requested a CT scan. The grieving mother said that she received the call about the CT scan on the morning of January 05, 2019, and informed her daughter that she would take the money during the lunchtime visit. However, she was told that the doctors said it was urgently needed and that she should visit the hospital as soon as possible with the money for the scan.
Sensing the urgency in her daughter’s voice, Khan rushed down to the GPHC and arrived shortly after 10:00h. In tears, Khan told this publication that she was not prepared for the sight she met when she entered the ward. Her daughter was being held in a sitting position by the team of doctors with several wires hooked on to her chest and her mouth and nose were covered by an oxygen mask.
The woman painfully related that her daughter did not even bat an eye at her or even speak. She said she started to ask questions, but no one was answering her directly. Instead, she was instructed to go and pay for the CT scan and that the ambulance would take
Mohammed at 11:00h for the procedure at another hospital. After she saw it was past 11:00h and no attempt was made to go for the scan, she started asking more question and was informed that her daughter was too unstable to move.
She said that they stayed at the hospital until 19:00h in hopes that the doctors would tell her something definitive but all she got was a doctor telling them that there is a strong possibility that Mohammed would fall in a coma for three days.
The family retreated to their East Bank Essequibo home and at about 22:00h, Mohammed’s husband received a call from the hospital asking that they go immediately. The family rushed there but on their way, a relative called and said that Mohammed had already died.
Mohammed died shortly after 22:00h on January 05, 2019. The autopsy concluded that she died of a heart attack. The family is not satisfied and have since indicated that there may be a cover-up of the death at the GPHC.
