A mother died on Saturday night at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corpora-tion (GPHC) almost two weeks after she had given birth to a baby girl. She had developed placenta accreta, a life threatening condition that develops in high risk pregnancies.
Alexis Syfox fought valiantly but she lost the fight in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital where, according to Minister of Public Health Dr George Norton doctors did all in their power to save her life. He said that too many women are dying in childbirth.
Yesterday her husband, Shawn Syfox, was too distraught to speak to this newspaper but it is understood the woman is a mother of four children.
Speaking to this newspaper yesterday Minister Norton indicated that the woman developed the complication during her third birth by caesarian.
It was on September 9 the mother had given birth but she began to haemorrhage as a result of placenta accreta. This is a condition that occurs when blood vessels and other parts of the placenta grow too deeply into the uterine wall. Typically, the placenta detaches from the uterine wall after childbirth. With placenta accreta, part or all of the placenta remains firmly attached. This can cause severe blood loss after delivery.
The minister said that Syfox was a “fighter and she died fighting, but we knew that it was only a question of time, it was really too much.” He had met with the woman’s relatives, including her husband and mother, and he believes that they are satisfied that the hospital had done all that was possible.
As a result of the condition the woman’s kidneys collapsed and in the end she was placed on dialysis. Pointing out that this was the woman’s third birth by caesarian, the minister said that it is not advisable for women to face another pregnancy after two caesarians because there is always a risk of complications. He said he had even spoken to doctors in the United States about the woman’s case and they were not certain that the result would have been any different in that country.
“But it grieves me so much,” the minister said, adding that the hospital and the health ministry do not have anything to hide in the woman’s case. He had planned to meet with the family again as he realizes how hard her death was for them since they had hoped she would pull through.
“We are losing this battle, we are trying to reduce maternal deaths…” the minister said, adding that women dying through childbirth is an issue which has to receive serious attention.
The minister, who has been in the job for just under five months, admitted yesterday that when “you are on the outside you don’t understand what is taking place.” He was the shadow minister of health for the PNCR and later APNU in the National Assembly for a number of years.
“Now you are on the inside you are seeing it. It is no longer just another mother dying, it is very worrying, it is really sad,” the minister said.
According to Minister Norton it is better to avoid high risk pregnancies as much as possible, and the process has to start at the family planning stage. “At family planning mothers must be asked not to become pregnant after two caesarians.”
The minister acknowledged that there have been cases where staff at the public institutions may have been negligent in their duties and made clear that things have to change. As minister “I take responsibility to be on the doctors’ backs to make sure all is done.”
He believes that too many times high risk pregnancies are not being diagnosed in time and by the time they reach the GPHC it is too late. And this does not apply to patients who are out of town alone, the minister said, but also for patients in Georgetown as well. Syfox was attending clinic at the GPHC.
So concerned is Dr Norton about this situation that he has promised to personally take a mother who is having her third child after two caesarian births, to the clinic “to talk to doctors and nurses; everything must be done.”
“What is needed is checks and balances; from the time things go wrong we put it back in order,” the minister said but stressed that knowing the physicians who worked with Syfox what was needed was done, but the complication “was too much.”
Syfox’s death follows that of 21-year-old Akeisha Richardson, who had delivered a baby on July 24 and died at GPHC on July 27 last. And in January 19-year-old, Marina Persaud of Golden Grove died of a ruptured intestine after delivering on Christmas Day. In April 22-year-old Kamili Arjune, died on Good Friday after a botched abortion. In May, 20-year-old Yonette Gray died after delivering her first child by caesarean section at the Suddie Hospital. And in June Carol Bollers a 41-year-old mother of five died after what was believed to be a botched abortion.
