The West Demerara Regional Hospital has completed an internal investigation into the death of Waheeda Haroon-Basil, who died last Thursday after giving birth at the facility.

The hospital’s report has been submitted to the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Shamdeo Persaud. Stabroek News was unable to contact him for a comment on the findings yesterday.

In a statement, Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy had said that in such cases, the procedure is that hospital must report a maternal death within 24hrs. The hospital also has to provide the Ministry of Health with a report of an investigation and is required to do so within 48 hours after the death. “The Ministry of Health is awaiting the completion of this investigation and will determine the course of action after the completion of the institutional investigation,” he said.

Haroon-Basil, 38, called ‘Sherry,’ of De Willem, West Coast Demerara, was advised to go to the hospital after she experienced slight bleeding. Although the bleeding had stopped, relatives were still making arrangements to take her to a private city hospital the following day. However they changed their minds after a female doctor who attended to her assured her relatives that she would be fine at the West Demerara Regional Hospital.

A close friend who visited Waheeda on Thursday afternoon said she was experiencing labour pains “every five minutes.” The friend was there when two female doctors came and asked how Waheeda was doing. When she told them she was experiencing the pain, they responded that “that is normal” and left. Later, after the pain became intense, the friend informed the nurse that Waheeda needed to go to the labour room.

Almost half hour later, the nurse was apparently still busy so Waheeda, with the assistance of her husband, Deonauth Basil, who had arrived by then, and her friend, got up and went to the labour room around 5:20 pm. Within a few minutes Waheeda gave birth to a healthy baby boy. She was aware that the woman was bleeding but did not know to that extent.

The friend left around 6:30 pm to go home to perform her prayers, telling the woman’s relatives that if they needed her they should call. Shortly after she got home she, received a call with the shocking news of Waheeda’s death. She returned with her husband, who assisted in taking the woman’s remains to the hospital’s mortuary as there was no porter around.

Relatives told Stabroek News that after the bleeding continued a doctor on duty-not a gynaecologist-was summoned but by then it was too late. They pointed out that “the oxygen tank was brought at the last moment.” They said too that Waheeda needed blood but the nurses told them that “the blood bank was closed.”

The relatives recalled too that the nurse who attended to her in the labour room called out to another nurse to assist her “but she just sat there and did not go. She apparently did not realise that Sherry [Waheeda] was in danger.”

They observed that more nurses are needed at the hospital, especially in cases of emergency. “We cannot bring back Sherry but all we want is for better services to be put in place so the lives of other mothers would be saved,” a family member said. “If they [hospital officials] knew she was high risk [as they claimed] then they should have made the necessary preparations like having the oxygen tank and blood on standby….”

Waheeda’s older sister, Sheneeza Hussain, who travelled from Canada for the funeral, told Stabroek News that she learnt that her sister “was in high spirits as usual up to the last. She even made a cup of Milo [a few hours earlier] for another patient who had just given birth.” Sheneeza said her death was a shock to everyone and while “we are saddened, we are contented that she died as a martyr and would go straight to jannah [heaven].” She explained that “in Islam, when a woman dies in childbirth, she achieves martyrdom. That is mainly what is keeping this family so strong.”

In addition to the baby boy, Waheeda is also mother to a daughter, Wafiqah, 16, and a son, Sohayl, 13.