Hypovolemic shock as a result of severe blood loss has been found as the cause of death of Amanda Tulsie, an Anna Regina mother who died shortly after a caesarean-section to remove a dead foetus last Sunday at the Suddie Hospital.
The autopsy on the body of Tulsie, 27, was performed yesterday by government pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh.
Tulsie, a young homemaker, had visited the hospital twice last week with complaints of severe abdominal pains. She subsequently underwent surgery after it was found that she was carrying a dead foetus and bleeding, her husband, Navindra Budhoo, told Stabroek News.
“Wednesday she start fuh cry out fuh bad, bad belly pain. She go and they admit her and keep she there till Friday and then discharge her,” Budhoo added.
On Saturday, he said, the pains had intensified and Tulsie began bleeding, telling him she could no longer feel the movement of her unborn son. They rushed to a private medical practitioner in Suddie but the doctor was not there and they had to go the longer distance to the Suddie Hospital since the bleeding increased.
Budhoo said that although there was evidence that the woman was losing blood, she had to wait as a normal maternity patient in the ward. He said when he visited her, the bleeding was so severe that she was wearing adult pampers which were soaked in blood.
The man added that he became alarmed when his wife began coughing up blood and medical personnel did not take it seriously. “They have her there in the pampers and so she a bleed but she talking but like they [think] everything alright… when she wanted to spit, they give she a pan and I see she cough up the blood but still them nah do nothing fuh she,” he said.
Budhoo, who is a farmer, said that none of the doctors or nurses tried to explain his wife’s condition to him. He said even if they used medical jargon he would have at least known they were trying. “Dem nah tell me nothing from she get admit. I mean if they come and seh something, I would feel better. I gat feelings man. They could say something but they just get she there bleeding. I know before dem cut she that is ’cause she lose too much blood. Doctor ain’t had to tell me that,” he noted.
Tulsie succumbed in the wee hours of Sunday morning after the c-section.
‘Help’
Her husband informed that as he prepares to bury Tulsie later today, he is worried about what will happen to their two children, a one-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl.
There is no one to babysit while he works. “Right now, I studying what going to happen after the 13 day work (a Hindu religious ceremony performed 13 days after a person is buried). We have nobody. She mother died when she was small, now she dead, leave these two,” he said.
The man said that the only family member that could assist with rearing his children was his sister, who lived in Berbice but was “busy building her house.” According to Budhoo, his father-in-law is too old and his sister-in-law is sickly.
“I need help with taking care of them. I really need help because working wasn’t a problem. She (Tulsie) used to stay home and look them and we wanted it so. Now I don’t know who to look to,” the concerned father said.
At a recent media colloquium, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Shamdeo Persaud had stated that hemorrhaging and hypovolemic shock accounted for more than half of the 17 maternal deaths last year. He added that that lack of blood donors had seen a drop in the amount of blood received last year. Recommendations were made by attendees that there be mandatory measures put in place, such as having pregnant mothers have donors give at least four units by the end of their pregnancy, so as to always have the necessary blood.
