The baby girl born to Chitrawattie Ramjiwan, the 20-year-old woman who died in transit from the Fort Wellington Hospital to the New Amsterdam Hospital following delivery complications, succumbed on Monday evening at the Georgetown Public Hospital where she was being kept for observation.
The newborn’s father, Lall Ramjiwan, told Stabroek News that he was at his Lot 33 Cotton Tree Village, West Coast Berbice home yesterday when he received a call that his daughter had passed away. He said that at the time he was making preparations for a Hindu ceremony for newborns and also one for the funeral of his wife when he received the dreaded news. He said that he would have named his daughter Anita Ramjiwan.
The man journeyed to the capital, where, he said, some time before lunch yesterday the body of his daughter was handed over to him. Hospital officials did not perform a post-mortem examination (PME).
He explained that doctors told him that the child had developed medical complications during delivery and had died from those.
When contacted, Georgetown Public Hospital officials requested that they be given a chance to explain the circumstances of both deaths, because they had to liaise with the Fort Wellington and New Amsterdam hospitals where the mother was first admitted and pronounced dead respectively.
Meanwhile a PME performed on Chitrawattie Ramjiwan yesterday at the New Amsterdam Morgue revealed that she died of haemorrhagic shock. The aspiring seamstress expired last Friday while being ambulanced from the Fort Wellington Hospital to the New Amsterdam Hospital, following delivery complications.
One doctor who had operated on the woman had opined that the woman had waited too long in labour before making her journey to the hospital. Further, he told this newspaper that she had lost a lot of blood due to haemorrhaging.
Her mother Penny Singh, when contacted by this newspaper last evening, was inconsolable as she spoke of her only daughter. Singh also has two sons. She said that Chitrawattie never had any complications during pregnancy and she was confused as to how she could have suddenly died.
Contrary to the comments made by the doctor that she had waited too long before going to the hospital, her family said it was the very morning after her first signs of labour, that her husband took her.
Her husband concurred, admitting that being a man and not knowledgeable about delivery, he was scared her amniotic sac might have broken at home, or worse if he was the one who would have to deliver her. “What they say about waiting is nah true cause soon as she wake me fore-day morning and seh I feeling pain, me hustle quick and put on clothes leh we go hospital cause me was fraid bad, bad never mind this is the second one,” he said.
Further, he informed that doctors have not yet told him if there would be an investigation into his wife’s death.
The Ministry of Health has come in for much criticism over the years for maternal deaths. During 2010, the country reported a staggering 19 maternal deaths. It was because of the high death rate that the United Nations had in 2011 stated that Guyana had made insufficient progress in curbing maternal deaths and was not on target to reach the 2015 Millennium Develop-ment Goal, much to the disappointment of then minister of health Dr Leslie Ramsammy.
Two probes were initiated this year. The first came after an expectant mother from Linden, Tasya Joseph died in transit to the GPH after being in labour at the Linden Hospital Complex for more than four days. The second death was that of Vanessa Roopnarine, whose dead foetus was left in her for days, apparently resulting in a stroke and subsequent death.
Joseph, 17, died on March 21 while being ambulanced from the Linden Hospital to the GPH. Her relatives accused officials at the Linden Hospital, where she was a patient for over four days, of negligence saying they knew she suffered from sickle cell anaemia and kept her in labour bleeding and without proper medical supervision. It was only after the woman’s condition worsened that she was transferred to the GPH. Her baby also died although it was full term. Roopnarine’s family accused the GPH of neglect, since she was told at a private city hospital that she was carrying a dead foetus and it took too long to surgically remove it. She subsequently suffered a stroke as a result of gestational hypertension and died three days after with the dead foetus still in her.
Minster of Health Dr Bheri Ramsaran, who is in Geneva, had said that every maternal death was investigated as per legislation and that if anyone was found wanting by the investigating teams they would not be spared discipline.
Chitrawattie Ramjiwan and her daughter will be interred today in the mother’s hometown, Black Bush Polder.
