A woman is alleging that her unborn son suffered complications and subsequently died due to the negligence of doctors and nurses attached to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital.
However, according to the Director of Health Services, Region Six, Jevaughn Stephens an investigation was conducted which proves that all protocols were followed during the time the woman spent at the hospital, and also during her delivery.
Bibi Girdharry, 29, of Lot 117 Smithfield, New Amsterdam, relayed what transpired during the few days she was admitted at the New Amsterdam Hospital, in an interview with Stabroek News at her home yesterday. Girdharry stated that on May 16th she visited the institution for a medical checkup after her due date had passed. However, she was given a return date of May 22nd. According to the woman, she returned on May 22nd, when she was admitted, noting that at that time she was 41 weeks pregnant. She continued that on May 23rd, an ultrasound was ordered and completed. “When I did my ultrasound it showed that my baby is okay, everything is okay, me and the child was okay,” she added.
She said that on May 23rd, “around quarter to twelve in the midnight, me water bag burst, I went and told the nurse my water bag burst, she check me and said is not the water bag.” Girdharry said from that moment she began experiencing excruciating pain. She stated that around 6:30 am on May 24th, she was then taken to the delivery room, where a check-up revealed that she was 4 cm dilated. “Around 10 [am] I asked for the nurse to check me because the pain getting more and more, she said that every time you get a hot pain you want us to check you and it don’t happen like that.”
However, to Girdharry’s surprise around midday on the said day, she felt “the baby stop moving.” She said that she told a nurse in the presence of a female and a male doctor that her baby was not moving at that point, but to her dismay no one paid her any attention.
She added that around 2 pm another check revealed that she had dilated to 7 cm. “(The doctor) started to handle me and tell me I wanted to make baby and I don’t want to feel baby pain,” the woman alleged. She said that she told the doctor that she couldn’t imagine the amount of pain she was experiencing at that moment, however, once again no one bothered with her. “I told the nurses that I feel the child coming up in my stomach, and I kept telling them I feel the baby coming more and more up to my stomach”, Girdharry recalled.
She stated that during the 2 pm check-up she started passing a green substance, and she inquired with the nurse if that was normal, to which the nurse replied, “Yes.”
However, it was minutes to 4 pm when doctors decided to perform a C-section, so as to deliver the child. At that point, all that the now devastated woman recalls, is that the doctor told her that the operation would not take long. “When I regained conscious I asked for my baby, and they said he was fine, I then asked to see my husband,” she said.
Meanwhile, she stated that moments later a male doctor told her that her baby would be transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC), since he was not breathing on his own. She stated that she demanded to be transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital along with her child. “When we were going to Georgetown, on the way my baby heart stop beating, the nurse asked the driver [of the ambulance] to speed up”, she recalled.
Moments after arriving at the GPHC on the morning of May 25th, doctors informed Girdharry that it seemed that she also had a breathing issue.
“They send me to do an x-ray, on my right side stomach had a mask, it didn’t seem right to the doctor. So I then do a CT scan, and it discovered that on my right side lungs had blood clots.” The woman stressed that she was healthy with no complaints up until she entered the NA hospital.
While Girdharry was receiving medical attention, about an hour after arriving at GPHC, she was informed by medical staff that the baby who was being treated elsewhere, had died at 9:05 am.
During the interview with Stabroek News, the woman also alleged that on her way to the NA Hospital operation theatre, a male doctor had told her that if anyone asked why a C- Section was being done on her, she should tell them that “the baby head was too big and he cannot pass.” She had also noted that she begged and cried for medical professionals to pay some necessary attention to her several times, however, she said this was not done, while alleging that they were on their phones most of the time.
Girdharry stated that this would have been her first child and she was looking forward to becoming a young mother, however, she said, to have lost him in such a way, “is a pain” she wished on no woman. She had the name Gabriel Jared Hooper picked out for her baby boy.
Girdharry has to visit the Georgetown Hospital once a week for three months to receive the necessary treatments for the blood clot in her lung
According to information gathered, a post-mortem examination revealed that the baby had suffered neonatal lung distress and a severe brain edema. He was laid to rest two Sundays ago.
Stephens, when contacted, explained to Stabroek News, that it is mandatory that an investigation be conducted within 24 hours in regards to any neonatal or maternal deaths. “It is quite unfortunate that while we would have observed all our medical protocols and all our doctors involved would have done all that was necessary, Ms Girdharry had to be rushed to theatre for emergency surgery.” He stated that the “Baby was born unstable,” hence he was transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital
He said that the investigation proved that, “Doctors at the New Amsterdam Hospital did all that was necessary and they stick to the hospital protocols.” He said that while the regional investigation was concluded, the report would be sent to the Chief Medical Officer, who would then continue the investigation.
