“It does really hurt me, some days I would just sit down and cry to know that I carry he for nine months and now I don’t have no baby,” she said in tears.
On the night of October 20, 2018, at the West Demerara Regional Hospital, Christina Scott gave birth to a son who died. The 37-year-old mother of three (ages 19 to 13) said she remembers the night as if it were yesterday.
“I was feeling the pain and I calling out to the nurses and doctor. I calling them but they not coming. I even call me sister and leave the phone leh she hear how I hollering and calling them, it was so much pain,” she told me.
“Even other patients tell them, ‘Look Scott in pain’ but nothing. I get up and go to one of the doctors because I couldn’t bear the pain no more and she tell me, ‘You ain’t ready yet go back on the bed and lie down on the plastic’ and she on she phone deh talking name.
“When them finally decide to act, the baby head was already out and them tek he out and I see they run quick with he behind the curtain but like I pass out after dah.”
She believes the manner in which the doctors removed her child caused his death.
“Is how she push she hand rough in me and pull out me child. He head been dent in. I have pictures to prove it. Is dem negligence kill my child,” the woman, said of the two doctors who attended to her.
“When me baby done dead, she [one of the doctors] tell me how she sorry and if I satisfied with the care I get. If I wasn’t in that condition, I woulda attack she right deh. I woulda scramble she for asking me something like that. But I was bleeding and I was just crying so much because the pain was so much, it was just too much for me alone.
“And then I didn’t get to see me son bury. Them send he to the funeral home and the parlour man tell me husband he can’t keep he too long and so is the same day when I get discharge, still in pain they bury he. It was raining all so I couldn’t go and sometimes when we passing the burial ground I does tell me husband I just want go in and sit down…
“You know what it is to carry a child for nine months and everything good with the child and then he just dead?” she asked.
I could not answer her.
“Sometimes I wake in the morning, me ain’t want get up because I feel so empty and I just long for my baby. Is me alone in the house during de day and I woulda have my baby with me.
“Everybody when they see me does ask for the baby and I have to tell them the baby dead and some a them like they can’t believe.
“Some people does tell me how I got to forget it. But you know what it is to do everything right, go to clinic and everything and because of people negligence your child dead? I use to ask them to transfer me to Georgetown hospital to get the baby because I know I use to trouble from pressure, but on the night me pressure everything was good and me baby still dead.
“I angry right now. I very angry because you know they didn’t even give a death certificate. After I get discharge, nobody never even call me to find out nothing and they have all me numbers and me sister number but nobody ain’t call me.
“Is not me alone who suffer at that hospital it have nuff other body who lose them baby, people who use to go to clinic with me them baby dead. That hospital doing a lot of stupidness and nobody like them nah looking into it,” the woman said.
She named 16-year-old Eshwar, who had lost her twin boys, as one of the mothers who attended clinic with her. The teenager had blamed negligence for her sons’ deaths, but health workers at the hospital had said she lost her twin babies as a result of spontaneous abortion or miscarriage. The woman also named two other women who attended clinic with her and who also lost their babies.
“I want some answers. Somebody have to me how me baby dead. I write to the Medical Council on November 12, 2018 and up to now I can’t get a answer. I have them number but every time I call they telling me that the person in charge not there,” she said.
“You know, if I see that doctor, the woman who pull out me baby, I don’t know what I would do. Honestly, I telling you, I don’t know what I will do. But I giving them up to the end of January and if I don’t hear nothing I will go with other mothers and protest by the ministry because somebody have to tell me something. Tell me how me child die!” she exclaimed, almost in a shout.
She was breathing rapidly and stopped speaking for a while. I could find no words to comfort her. Her pain was almost tangible, but I was not sure what to say. What do you tell a woman who has suffered such a loss? I asked the question in my mind, but no words came.
“It is really hurtful and unfair to me and all them woman who lose them babies,” she said, this time almost in a whisper.
“You know, when I see babies it does hurt more, because I shoulda have my son in me arms and when I see doctors it does just boil me up,” she continued.
“I not too long come from the doctor because I still not well, you could imagine. Is only because I have three other children and me husband to live for, because I don’t know what I woulda do. They does try and give me support and me sister and so but when I deh alone I just miss me baby more.
“I know I have to try and move on, because life go on but I need some answers. These people need to understand they can’t treat people like that. I is not no animal and even a animal you don’t treat like that.
“You know is who feels it knows it. If you been ask me about this before me baby dead, I couldn’t tell you nothing but now I know how it feel to carry a child for nine months, he big, bug and everything and because others don’t care nothing, he dead,” she said.
The Stabroek News had reported on the baby’s death last October and when the hospital was contacted at the time no answer was provided.
For Scott, an explanation from the hospital is necessary and I agree with her. She needs to know how her baby died. As I listened to her, I recalled the death of my sister’s twins last year. My sister is a semi-introvert and would only make passing remarks about the deaths of the children. I know she also hurts, but she does not talk about it and just as with Scott I am not sure what to say to her.
More needs to ensure that mothers do not have to suffer from this pain, which for many is lifelong.
