A 16-year-old mother is still in grief after her twins died shortly after delivery at the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH) on Saturday and she blames it on negligence.
The baby boys were born prematurely to Preya Eshwar of Parika, East Bank Essequibo around 11.30 am and they both died shortly after.
Her mother, Sharmela Beni told Stabroek News that her daughter started having abdominal pain around 5:30 am on Saturday and they took her to the Leonora Diagnostic Centre.
A doctor there told her that Eshwar had an infection and referred her to the WDRH. They were advised to take her to the maternity ward.
But the nurses from the ward sent them down to the emergency room where they were again told that she had an infection and she had to have an “abortion.”
They then administered “saline and a blue tablet” and the pain increased. Around 10:30 am they sent her back to the maternity ward and her father pushed her in the wheelchair, as there was no porter available.
They waited in the “hallway” for about half an hour before the nurses took her to the ward. According to the mother, they also took another half hour asking her daughter questions before finally attending to her.
Beni said too that the first baby arrived by foot and that from the hallway they could hear her daughter screaming in pain. They also heard the baby crying.
Eshwar told this newspaper that the nurses were chatting and laughing nearby when she told them that they second baby was “coming out.” But before they could assist, the baby fell into the bedpan.
She said the nurses then placed both babies on the bed on “thin cloth napkins” without wrapping them although the room was extra cold from the air-conditioning unit.
Eshwar said both babies were still moving and she had begged the nurses to place them in the incubator. But they refused saying that the babies were already dead and left the room.
“I watch them dying but I couldn’t do anything,” the young mother said.
One hour later the nurses came back to the room to check them and told her that the babies were dead, that they were underweight and had “lung problem.”
She accepted that the babies were small but said they were fully developed. She lamented that the nurses made no effort to save the babies. “They didn’t even try,” she said sadly. Stabroek News was unable to get a comment from the hospital regarding the alleged neglect.
