A 34-year-old mother of five is grieving because she was not shown the body of a stillborn baby she gave birth to at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) on July 8.
A distraught Shellon Nedd visited the Lyken Funeral Home yesterday in an attempt to locate the body of her child, since, according to her, she was not getting any assistance from the police. She said she had been told that sometimes bodies were taken to Lyken’s from the hospital. However, her child’s body was not there.
”I just want to see me child body. Right now I really grieving over this. I not even eating. It is hard on me,” Nedd said yesterday while sitting at the funeral home. “I ent even get a death certificate. All they give me is me discharge slip. I carry the baby fuh nine months and I go through pain fuh it to born so I want to see something.”
Stabroek News contacted Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the GPH, Michael Khan, and he confirmed that the woman had given birth at the hospital. According to Khan, the child was abnormal and was delivered dead. However, the CEO said, normally a stillborn child was still shown to its mother so he did not understand why this was not done in Nedd’s case.
“I have launched an investigation and I would be able to speak with the relevant people, including the doctor on Monday and make a statement,” Khan said. He further stated that no death certificate was issued when a baby was stillborn and this has been the hospital’s policy for several years.
Nedd has since made a formal written complaint to the GPH.
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday, Nedd, who was only discharged from the hospital last Sunday because the child was delivered by caesarean section, said she was admitted to the hospital on the morning of July 8 with labour pain. She said that after some time she was told that her baby was “coming down by the foot,” and she was taken to the labour room. In the labour room her “water bag” was clipped and she was told to push. According to the woman, shortly after the baby’s feet protruded and she was told to lie on her side and continue to push. Nedd said she was then further examined by a nurse who sent for the doctor immediately. “By this time I start to haemorrhage, I was bleeding a lot and when the doctor come is like I ent had any more life in me to push,” Nedd said.
She said the nurses then put an adult diaper on her because of the bleeding and she was taken to the operating theatre. According to the woman this was done even though the baby’s feet were protruding. She was given an anaesthetic and when she awakened, she was in the ward but she did not know the fate of her baby.
“I ask a nurse where is my baby and she tell me is a girl and I go see she when I go to the ward,” Nedd said. She said another nurse went to help her clean up and she again asked to see her baby.
This time she was told that the baby “was a beautiful girl baby but it born with no brains and it dead.” Nedd said she still asked to see the body of the child and the nurse told her that because of her condition she should ask her family members to visit the morgue to view the body.
Nelva Nedd, who is the aunt of Nedd’s husband Noel Nedd, and who accompanied her to Lyken’s, said she and other relatives visited the morgue at the hospital but were told by those in charge that they “had a lot of dead and we can’t see the body.” Asked if they were told to return on another date, Nelva Nedd said she could not remember.
Nedd said she kept asking to see the body of the baby and at one point a nurse told her that the baby was a “Mongoloid [a derogatory term used to refer to people with Down’s Syndrome] and if my family see the baby dem will laugh at me.”
However, Nedd said, “I ent care if my baby was a Mongoloid. If I give birth to a dog or cat or whatever I still want to see me baby. I carry she fuh nine months and I had pain to get she so I want to see the body. This thing really grieving me.”
She said her husband was very upset and because they were not able to view the body of the baby he was questioning what really happened to his child. Nedd said she wanted answers from the hospital.
The baby girl was Nedd’s seventh child. Another of her children died when he was eight months old. Her other children are 18, 13, six and three years old.
