A first time mother is now mourning the loss of her baby, who died on Monday at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), which has been accused of negligent care in the lead up to the child’s birth.
A day after the delivery of her child, Tricia Benjamin, 21, was left mourning the loss of the baby girl, who she carried full term.
When contacted, GPH Public Relations Officer Mitzy Campbell stated that the hospital was aware of the case and it is currently being investigated.
According to Benjamin’s mother-in-law, Eslyn David, the young woman was taken to the GPH last week Monday, at which point she had already carried the child for nine months and her cervix was 3 centimetres dilated.
David, however, told Stabroek News that by last Tuesday morning, there was no progress with the delivery of the child. She added that although Benjamin was experiencing a lot of discomfort and believed that the baby was “dropping,” her concerns were ignored and she was discharged from the hospital.
Last Saturday morning, David said she noticed that Benjamin was in pain and was having a hard time sitting. She later also noticed that the young woman’s clothes were messy and it was then that she realised that her water had broken.
David said she rushed Benjamin to the GPH, where she was kept the entire Saturday. Early on Sunday morning, she added, doctors decided to induce labour. The woman said that when she visited the hospital theatre on Sunday, she saw a doctor running out with a baby, which caused her to ask about Benjamin and she learnt that she was anaesthetised.
David said she asked about the baby and was told that the child was very ill. She added that a doctor reported that the baby’s heart beat was way below the normal rate.
On Monday, David said she was finally able to see her granddaughter, who was in an incubator, and appeared to have trouble breathing. She said slime also kept coming out of the child’s nose.
It was later that night that David said she was called by the GPH as there was an emergency and when she went to the hospital she learnt that the baby had died.
Meanwhile, Benjamin recounted that after the decision to induce labour, her bleeding and an indication that the child’s heart rate was dropping resulted in her being rushed into the theatre for a C-section.
After the surgery, Benjamin said she woke in the theatre alone in nothing but her hospital gown. She said a nurse eventually came and was arguing about her being left there alone, while noting that “they do that all the time.” Benjamin noted that she awoke at 5 from her surgery but was only taken to the nursery about quarter to eight that night.
In the nursery, she said two student doctors visited her bedside and told her that the baby had a complication and needed a machine. She did not see the baby. She said that because she was still anaesthetised, she was in and out of consciousness and could vaguely remember what was said. She added that she knows that they asked her to sign a paper, which she did.
The next morning, she said, no one took her down the stairs to see her baby. After learning that the child died, she said she received injections to put her to sleep when she began to cry.
According to Benjamin, who has since been discharged, she is still in pain from the C-section and the trauma of her baby’s death. She noted that she has cried night and day since losing the child, who she only saw after her death.
David said that she will not rest until justice is served. According to her, the treatment of her daughter-in-law and family members received from the staff at the GPH was beyond terrible, while noting that in some cases doctors and nurses were not doing their jobs but were instead busy on Facebook.
