The relatives of a 26-year-old woman who died yesterday morning hours after a caesarean section was performed on her at the New Amsterdam Hospital are calling on the relevant authorities to conduct an investigation into her death as they are of the opinion officials at the hospital delayed in performing the c-section.
Rebekah Chinamootoo of Number 35 Village, Corentyne, died some time early yesterday morning after she was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) bleeding heavily.
According to the relatives the woman was admitted to the New Amsterdam Hospital on Friday afternoon and was in pain.
She informed the nurses that she would have to deliver her baby via c-section since her first child, a five year-old girl, was also delivered in that manner.
“Dem tell she how she gat passage and she could get the baby the normal way. But dem shoulda know is c-section because she chart say so and she use to go clinic,” a relative told this newspaper.
The young woman spent the entire night and most of Saturday in pain until late in the afternoon a “young Cuban doctor come and give she anaesthesia and say she gat to get c-section.”
While the baby boy was delivered and was healthy, the woman’s relative said that the mother never regained consciousness and they were unhappy to leave her at the hospital, but had no other alternative after being told that she would be alright. They claimed that the young woman was bleeding heavily at the time and this worried them.
They received a call some time around 11pm on Saturday night informing them that the young mother would be rushed to GPHC and by the time they arrived at around 4 am yesterday morning she was already dead.
“People tell we that she was bleeding bad that when they lift she from the ambulance she been bleeding and bleeding,” a relative said.
“This thing happening too much; something have to be done people children can’t just die out like this, this ent right,” a relative said.
They said the woman’s death is even more difficult as it was only recently her 19-year-old brother passed away.
“This hard fuh me brother because is only deh other day that he son dead and now this, is four children he get,” a sister of the woman’s father told this newspaper.”
“Is just carelessness, they know they had to do it [the c-section] and they delay and now she dead,” the sister continued.
Family members yesterday told Stabroek News that they are awaiting the results of the post mortem expected to be done today.
Once the result is received they said they would know what action they would take but vowed that they would not allow the young woman to die in vain.
Stabroek News yesterday made contact with Leslie Cadogan, the administrator of the New Amsterdam hospital yesterday, who said he would have to familiarize himself with the details of the case before he could speak to the press.
Earlier this month, September 6, another mother, 33-year-old Aseelah Haqq, died at the GPHC while giving birth. Her relatives had said the woman was referred to the GPHC by the Beterverwagting Health Centre.
She had been suffering from complications and her pregnancy had gone over 42 weeks. Relatives had said that at GPHC an ultrasound was conducted on the woman and the doctor ordered that a c-section be done since her body would not be able to take the strain of normal labour.
Two days later her water-bag broke and she endured labour pains until the following day then she was finally taken to the delivery room to give birth as per normal despite the doctor’s orders. Several hours later she delivered a healthy child but her condition deteriorated rapidly.
“They told me that the blood vessel ruptured from the strain of delivering her baby and she started to bleed internally…they then hook her up to a life machine,” a sister of the woman had said.
The woman was placed on a life machine but it was subsequently removed. The GPHC had promised to probe the death but there has been no word on the investigation since.
