…no autopsy performed
Shanti Devi Suku is calling on the relevant authorities to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of her baby hours after it was delivered at the New Amsterdam Hospital.
The New Amsterdam Hospital has been making headlines, over the past few weeks, for its maternal mortality rate.
Suku of First Street, Letter Kenny, Corentyne, Berbice, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), delivered her baby at about noon on March 3, at the New Amsterdam Hospital. It was reportedly a normal delivery but several hours later, the mother of two was informed that her newborn was dead.
She is claiming that the Hospital’s Administration is silent on the issue although a thorough investigation and report is mandatory.
Suku visited the Port Mourant Hospital on March 3, 2021, where she was admitted and upon seeing the doctors, she was transferred to the New Amsterdam Hospital. She was a patient of the high-risk clinic at Port Mourant and on the day she was admitted, she had gone for a routine checkup.
The devastated mother told Inews that upon arriving at the New Amsterdam Hospital she was taken into the maternity ward and subsequently to the labour room where she delivered a healthy baby.
However, she added that after some time had elapsed after giving birth, she requested to see her newborn but it was then she was told that the baby had died.
“Dem nah tell me say ah baby dead inside me belly. Me hear ah babe ah cry inside ah room and me ask dem fuh see meh baby and dem tell me that the baby dead inside me fuh more than days,” the grieving woman recounted.
She recalled feeling her baby moving in her womb up to the morning she visited the Port Mourant Hospital. As such, she is calling on the authorities to look into the matter.
The aggrieved husband who asked to remain anonymous related that he would place his ear on his wife’s belly to feel the movement of the unborn child and he too believes that his baby was born healthy.
Nevertheless, the hospital did not release a statement on the death of the baby. In fact, when contacted for information, days after the incident, Regional Health Officer Vishalya Sharma promised that the information requested would be sent out at the earliest but to date, no details were released by the hospital’s administration.
Health regulations are that all maternal deaths must be reported within twelve hours and all stillbirths within 24 hours. It is also mandatory that a post-mortem be carried out on the infant to determine the cause of death but none of the two was done.
Meanwhile, a source close to the New Amsterdam Hospital stated that the death was recorded as a stillbirth. The source, however, could not say if it is being investigated.
In the latter part of February, 31-year-old Vanessa Lewis-Sahadeo of Williamsburg, Corentyne, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), died hours after her newborn. The newborn baby died at the New Amsterdam Hospital while the mother succumbed at the Georgetown Public Hospital after she reportedly developed complications.
After a thorough investigation, a doctor and two nurses were suspended after they were found to be negligent in taking care of Lewis-Sahadeo and her newborn baby.
Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony had stated that “based on that report, we strongly believe that the doctor who was in charge of the patient seemed to be negligent and we also believe that the nurses who were involved were also negligent.”
