A Linden couple is seeking answers from the Linden Hospital Complex after the death of their newborn baby shortly after delivery on Monday night.
Marceline Allen, 37, a resident of Lot 30 A Silver City, Linden, delivered the baby boy just after 7 pm on Monday. The baby died shortly after.
Up to yesterday, Marceline and her husband, Colin Allen, had not received any official word from doctors or the hospital. “It don’t make sense to me. I really don’t understand what happen,” a distressed Colin told Stabroek News yesterday.
Efforts made by this newspaper to contact the hospital for a comment on the matter proved futile.
Colin recounted that on Sunday evening, Marceline was rushed to the hospital after her water bag broke. “Her water bag broke at home. We took her there. They checked her and what she told me they said she was like 3 cm [dilated]. What I know and what I believe she said to me is that they never checked her again to see how much centimeter she was,” he related.
Colin added that while his wife was admitted, she was left unattended for most of the day on Monday. “That was all day she was there. Nobody come and check back the centimeter to see how she developing or whatever. When you in labour, they not supposed to be checking this? They didn’t check it—that’s what she (Marceline) said to me,” he added.
On Monday afternoon, he said, Marceline’s blood pressure was high but subsequently dropped. “I remember a doctor or a nurse was doing like the baby heartbeat. He had a very strong heart beat…..it sound very strong to me. When they put the sounding thing, I hear it. I recorded it on my phone,” he further said.
Told to pray
According to Colin, Marceline had no complications prior to her admission. “She was normal, normal… I am telling you my wife never had no complication with that child—it’s our second child. She never had no problem,” he emphasised, while voicing his belief that she was left unattended for too long.
“When they finally started dealing with her after she couldn’t push out the baby, they decided to take her in. So while she was going, I was wondering how far the baby foot deh or something because she was sitting in a wheel chair… so I asked the doctor. I said, ‘Doctor, what’s going on? Is everything ok?’ He said, ‘you have to pray.’” Colin recalled.
He said he and his mother-in-law were present to ensure Marceline had a safe delivery. “My mother-in-law, who was there with me, told me the baby was coming by the foot, the baby mess in her [Marceline] and they decided to take her to the theatre,” he said.
He further noted that on Sunday night, after Marceline’s water bag broke, he had noticed that the baby appeared to be in a breech position. “I am not a doctor, I am not a nurse but I coulda see that round head and I said, ‘Man this baby head supposed to be down! How the baby head up that way?’ But if they were checking the girl (Marceline), they would have known,” the man added.
Colin said his suspicion was later confirmed when the nurses told him that the baby was coming feet first and they had to rush Marceline to the operating theatre. “So they took her and they cut her and I see doctors running all over the place. Some of them coming I don’t know if they were on call or something and then long after that a nurse come and tell me the baby die. So I said, ‘How come the baby die?’ Well, I mean things could happen but I don’t understand how this baby did strong and she [Marceline] didn’t had no problem. How come the baby die? …Another nurse said that the baby was stress out or something like that, was in distress for a long time,” he noted.
Needs answers
Up to yesterday afternoon, Colin said no one had approached him formally to explain the baby’s death.
“My thing is up to now nobody ain’t come to me formally and tell me ‘Mr Allen, you know this happen. One nurse whisper and said to me ‘Man look, this is negligence.’ A next one coming and say they trying to revive the child. Giving me mix messages and stuff,” he lamented.
“But what I am saying the baby is gone right now. Nobody come back to me and tell me, ‘Mr Allen, so-so-so is the case. One nurse just came and say, ‘What you gonna do? Yuh gonna bury the baby? Leh the hospital bury the baby or yuh gonna…? Yuh know? Very bad. It’s my child I lose my child. It’s real tough man,” Colin stressed.
Colin said while he is thankful that his wife is still alive, he doesn’t want anyone else to have to a similar experience and so he is seeking answers. “I am happy that she [Marceline] live but I don’t want this to ever happen to another person again. It mustn’t happen because if I had enough money, I am going to a lawyer, but if I had enough money I would fight them [the hospital]. It have to stop,” he said.
Colin added that while he is consulting with a lawyer, he is not sure how far it will go since he cannot afford the fees. “I want them to answer me,” he, however, said