A relative of Shellon Nedd, who had complained that she was not allowed to see the body of her stillborn baby girl, was able to view the body of the child at the hospital’s morgue.
Nedd’s uncle said yesterday that he went to view the body as his niece, who had given birth by caesarean section, was unwell and unable to do so.
“I ent see anything wrong with the child,” the uncle said. “The hospital say the child abnormal but I see a normal baby girl.” However, he said the family would allow the matter to rest since his niece has indicated that she has no money to bury the child.
Asked whether the family would request a post-mortem examination on the child’s body, the uncle said no. “Is the hospital who have to do it. And how we know is the right body? Let it go man, let them bury the baby.
My niece just wanted to see the body and she couldn’t make it. I see it and it look fine to me,” the uncle said.
Contacted yesterday, Director of Medical Services Dr Madan Rambarran said it was not the hospital’s policy to do post-mortem examinations on stillborn babies and it would not do so, unless there was a request from the doctor who delivered the baby or the family of the child.
On Friday, a distressed Nedd had told Stabroek News that she was not shown the body of a stillborn baby girl she gave birth to at the hospital on July 8. However, according to a subsequent hospital press release, she gave birth to the baby on July 7.
When contacted Chief Executive Officer of the hospital, Michael Khan, had said it was the policy of the hospital to show mothers the bodies of their baby when they were stillborn. He had said that the child was abnormal when it was born.
On Saturday the hospital said in a statement that the stillborn’s body was at the institution’s mortuary and the parents were free to uplift it during working hours.
In an effort to address the “misunderstanding” surrounding the whereabouts of the child’s body, the hospital had said that usually parents would be reluctant to view babies in such conditions and the hospital would take responsibility for burial. This, the release stated, was the reason behind not allowing Nedd to see her child.
Nedd, a mother of five, had in desperation, visited the Lyken’s Funeral Parlour after hearing that remains were usually taken there from the hospital morgue.
The woman explained that she was first told by a nurse that she had given birth to a baby girl and she would see her when she went to the ward. Later, she was told by another nurse that her baby “was a beautiful girl baby but it born with no brains and it dead”.
After being told by yet a third nurse, that she had given birth to a “mongoloid [a derogatory term used to refer to people with Down’s syndrome] and if my family see the baby dem will laugh,” 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.”
