A young couple from Hampshire Village, Corentyne are calling on the authorities to launch an investigation into the maternity unit at the New Amsterdam Public Hospital, since they believe that staff attached to the unit were responsible for the death of their infant.
Naiomi Madramootoo, 24, of Lot 1 A Campbell Street, Hampshire Village, Corentyne when contacted explained that last Friday around 10.30 pm her water broke, which led to her husband rushing her to the Port Mourant Public Hospital.
However, after arriving at the Corentyne hospital, which is equipped with a maternity unit, she was then transferred to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital. She said at that time she was told that she had already dilated to five centimeters, hence the transfer.
Madramootoo via an ambulance arrived at the New Amsterdam Public Hospital just minutes before 12 midnight on Friday and she was then admitted.
She explained that around 2 am her contractions began to increase rapidly, which led her to inform the nurse that she felt “something was coming”. However, the young mother of one said, the nurse told her to exhale, inhale and relax, and that she was not ready to give birth.
The woman said the overbearing pain resulted in her starting to scream but to her surprise the nurse did not check on her to see whether she had dilated further. She said at that time while she was feeling the heavy urge to push her baby, the nurses present were in the delivery unit with another patient. “They were talking and laughing and I was in pain”, she relayed.
At that point, she said that she felt as though she could no longer deliver her baby on her own and requested to speak with the doctor in charge to see if a C Section was possible.
The woman noted that she was told that the doctor had already left. She then requested to speak with her husband and relatives. However, she was told that whatever she wanted to tell her husband she could tell the nurse. She noted, “When I tell them I wanted a C Section, she said I am no doctor to tell them what I want”. She also added, that other nurses present in the unit began to rudely question, ‘What she want that for?’
According to Madramootoo, while she gave birth to her first child without a C Section, she had some complications to push the child which was 3 lbs. She also noted that she later learnt that the doctor was present in the maternity unit when she had requested a meeting.
Meanwhile, sometime after 5 am Madramootoo was taken to the delivery unit, since the nurses had then decided she was ready to give birth because they had checked her and discovered she had dilated to 10 cm. However, once in the delivery room the doctor present discovered that it was too late for the woman to give birth on her own after several tries, and ordered a C Section. They woman stressed, that at that time there was a heartbeat for her child when the doctor checked.
She related that they prepared her for the operation, however, they left her to wait without an reason.
She said the shift had changed and other nurses with a midwife around 9 am Saturday checked on her and discovered that the baby had no heartbeat. She was rushed to the operating theatre where after a surgery she requested to see her baby.
The woman said that she knew her baby did not survive but while in the recovery room she continued to request to see her baby, and it was then that she was informed by a doctor that her baby had died.
The woman related that she was able to see her child only until Tuesday which seemed odd to her.
Additionally, a post-mortem examination was not carried out since the couple were focused on giving their child a proper burial because they believed the infant had already been through enough.
Relatives noted that during the wee hours of Saturday, they had requested to see the young woman since from outside they could her screaming. They also questioned whether they would be allowed to take the woman to a private hospital. However, they were told by nurses that they (nurses) had everything under control.
