(Trinidad Guardian) A pregnant mother of two, who was placed in a medically induced coma with swine flu complications has died.
Guardian Media learned that the 38-year-old mom died on Thursday night at the Mt Hope Medical Complex.
This newspaper highlighted the case two weeks ago and spoke with her husband.
He was unable to speak with the media on Friday and yesterday, only saying he was “too stressed right now to talk”.
Guardian Media learned that the woman was kept isolated at the High-Dependency Unit (HDU), and kept in a medically induced coma to better deal with both her swine flu symptoms and her early trimester pregnancy.
She was 15 weeks pregnant at the time of her death.
Corporate communications at the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) confirmed the death late Friday night in response to questions from Guardian Media.
At first, the NCRHA was not aware of the woman’s death and denied that the woman had died.
Minutes later, they sent a short confirmatory statement.
“Yes, I can confirm that she passed away after a valiant attempt by our staff to save her life in the HDU at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex. The Authority is saddened by this loss and expresses our condolences to her family,” the NCRHA said.
On January 12, Guardian Media spoke with her husband as he visited her in the hospital.
At that time he was hopeful of her recovery and said she was getting better.
It is unclear what happened in the days that followed but according to family members she “took a turn for the worse.”
At that time, the husband and father said when his wife was diagnosed with swine flu, the entire family was isolated and tested, but she is the only one who tested positive.
He said then that the whole family fell apart emotionally when they first learn she had swine flu. His mother was so devastated by the news, that she too was hospitalised and later died. The husband said they were not sure where his wife contracted the disease as people near their Arima home were tested after she was diagnosed, but no one else had swine flu. Two weeks ago the Ministry of Health was on high alert after three deaths from the disease.
On Saturday, in a text exchange about this specific case, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh warned this publication about creating panic but said nothing more.
Two weeks ago, he confirmed that there were some 17 confirmed cases in the country and that the Ministry had ordered another 25,000 vaccines because people were visiting health centres to get their vaccination.