The family of a 34-year-old woman who died three days after she delivered a stillborn baby via Caesarian section at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) are accusing hospital officials of causing the death of both mother and child due to negligence.
Evita Singh fell into an unconscious state on Thursday evening after her dead baby girl was delivered and died on Saturday evening without regaining consciousness.
Relatives believe that the woman and baby died because hospital officials induced labour by inserting six Cytotec tablets (known as the abortion pill) even though she was not slated to give birth. They believe that this caused severe internal damage.
“They cold blooded kill my child. Why they push tablet up in she? She not ready to make the baby,
is till this month end she get and not labour pain carry she to the hospital,” the woman’s mother Chandra Ramjit told this newspaper.
Contacted yesterday, Chief Executive Officer of the GPH Michael Khan told this newspaper that the hospital was investigating the death and that a statement would have been issued by yesterday afternoon. No statement came and repeated calls to Khan’s number remained unanswered.
According to Singh’s mother, she took her daughter to the hospital last Monday because she was complaining about fever and pain in her joints and it was believed that she had Chikungunya, a disease that she (the mother) had recently suffered from. The mother said she was also concerned as the young woman’s feet were swollen and her blood pressure was high.
The young mother of two was given Panadol for the pain and she was admitted to the maternity ward of the hospital. However, the woman emphasised that her daughter was not in labour and had almost a month more before she was ready to give birth.
Singh remained in the hospital and on Wednesday when the family went to see her she indicated that the nurses had inserted two tablets to induce labour, though she was not in any pain at the time. By the time they returned on Thursday the woman told them that four more tablets were inserted and by that time she was not only in pain but she was also bleeding.
The woman called her mother on Thursday evening and she was in so much pain that she could hardly speak, but managed to say the pain was unbearable before she hung up.
The next call the family received was from doctors at the hospital who asked them to visit the institution urgently.
On arrival, they found the mother of two unconscious and were informed that the baby girl was delivered via C-section but had died.
The woman’s father, Dennis Ramjit, said he was told by doctors that Singh needed blood but when he saw his daughter he knew she was going to die.
“She was there lying, her head was shaking and she eye open and then it close tight, tight. I think is just the machine keep she alive so long she been done dead,” the grieving man said.
The parents said they were informed that the nurses made their daughter push even though she was bleeding profusely and the baby was not budging.
“I don’t know why dem didn’t carry she fuh C-section, but she been bleeding bad and dem have she pushing,” the father said.
The father said he was told that by the time they took her to the theatre, she had to wait about 15 minutes because the doctor was performing surgery on someone else at the time and no other operation table was available.
“I want to know if a big hospital likka duh only have one operation table? And my daughter lie down and bleed for 15 minutes. You know is how much blood? Is bleed out, she bleed out. Dem kill me daughter…,” the man said angrily yesterday.
“They kill me daughter with the six tablet dem push up in she,” his wife added.
The woman recalled that her nephew went to the hospital on Saturday afternoon at around 5:30 and saw several persons around her bed.
“Right away he know is dead she dead because he wife dead just about four years ago and he run out and start crying and is he call we and she father and husband went down,” Chandra said.
A post-mortem examination was expected to be performed on the woman’s body yesterday but the family said they were told that the Ministry of Health was investigating and the procedure would be done on Wednesday.
“I don’t what they doing because they need to do the post-mortem so that they can see how she dead and then investigate,” the father said.
They do not believe they would get any justice because so many others have died in similar circumstances and nothing came out of those incidents.
“In this country you know you can’t win them. We just want the public to know what happened. It is not the first case, where people die and we want to make it known,” he said.
Singh, of 13 Lalchan Street, Better Hope, East Coast Demerara, had a 13-year-old and a six-year-old and her mother described her as “loving and kind” and the child she depended on to help her out.
“I have to stand by me son-in-law and grandchildren now because they have no one,” she cried.
