A mother is claiming that her second child died one day after being delivered at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) due to the negligence and procrastination of doctors and nurses.
Vonette Husler, 39, of East La Penitence, Georgetown, was told yesterday by doctors that her 12 pound infant son had succumbed due to respiratory failure, a few hours after he was delivered via an emergency caesarean-section. The case is the latest in series of deaths of mothers and newborns.
The woman told Stabroek News that on Monday, the date she was scheduled to deliver, she had started experiencing labour pains and was rushed to the hospital by her husband. Her daughter, now 11, was delivered by caesarean section and Husler was told by doctors that she should expect the same type of delivery for her second child.
This information, she said, she relayed to nurses on admittance but was told that she would deliver naturally.
“I came in and told them that I had a C-section before and that the doctors say more than likely this one will be the same… they ask me if I am a doctor and [said] I should wait because I ain’t ready yet,” she said.
On Tuesday, her labour pains intensified and she could feel the child’s head bearing downwards. “They checked me and said I was far from ready… and that I should lie down but I couldn’t because pain too much,” she said, adding that she spent Tuesday in labour pains. On Wednesday, when it was too much, she screamed for help. “Yesterday (Wednesday) I couldn’t take it no more. I tell them ah ready but the nurse called a doctor to examine me and he said I was only one cm [dilated] but the pain more than me… when I go to lie down I feel I wash away with blood,” she added, saying that it was only on seeing her hemorrhaging that she was given attention and an alarmed nurse began calling for help as she prepped her for the operating theatre.
Husler underwent a caesarean-section and delivered a whopping 12 pound boy. But when she asked for her child, she was told by authorities that he had developed respiratory troubles during delivery as he possibly had ingested fluids, which were in his lungs. Sometime before 4pm yesterday, she was informed by a doctor that her baby had succumbed.
The very emotional mother, who was at intervals too distraught to speak, said, “My baby was big, he filled the newborn crib they had him in.
There was no way I could have pushed him out and they should have known that because it isn’t like I didn’t tell them… I have a daughter already and this would have been the son I wanted so long.”
Only last week, the GPHC rejected claims that it was in any way responsible for the deaths of two infants who had succumbed shortly after their mothers had also died during delivery.
Samantha Bruce, 17, of Soesdyke, recently died at the Georgetown Public Hospital after delivering twins, one boy and a girl. The female infant subsequently passed away, while undergoing care.
The male child remains in the Intensive Care Unit of the institution and is listed in a stable condition and is said to be progressing very well.
The other young mother, Chitrawattie Ramjiwan, 20, of Cotton Tree, West Coast Berbice died while being transferred from Fort Wellington Hospital to the New Amsterdam Hospital. She had delivered a girl and had developed complications.
The child was rushed to the GPHC and was being monitored, but she, too, died a few days after. While a post-mortem examination (PME) was not performed on the infant, the one done on her mother listed her cause of death as hemorrhaging and hemorrhagic shock. Two obstetricians later stated that the monitoring of the babies after birth in both cases was lax.
The Ministry of Health has also come in for sharp criticism since at of May 31st there had already been nine reported maternal deaths for the year, despite more training of healthcare officials in the area of neonatal care.
