Relatives are seeking answers in relation to a Berbice woman and her baby, who died within a day of each other, following the infant’s delivery at the New Amsterdam Public Hospital.
Forty-year-old Karen Reid of Sheet Anchor, East Canje, Berbice, was admitted to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital on May 26, while she was pregnant with her sixth child. According to Reid’s sister, Vanessa Sampson, Reid, who had been admitted due to blood pressure issues, stayed until the following Thursday.
“My sister end up in hospital the Sunday and from then she children and so used to visit she steady. Is Thursday we find out that they give she three of some tablet and she couldn’t eat nothing with it,” Sampson stated. The woman went on to say that while one of Reid’s daughters was at the hospital, she showed her three Cytotec pills she had to take, and related that she was only able to drink water and aerated beverages while taking the medication. There have been numerous cases in the public health system where the administering of Cytotec to pregnant women has resulted in maternal deaths.
Sampson stated that on Thursday, her brother received a call stating that Reid was in critical condition. The woman added that they were later informed that her sister had suffered a seizure, had fallen, and was taken to the theatre for surgery. “The doctors told him that she get a seizure and fall down, so they carry her to do a surgery and say that the baby was stillborn,” Sampson related.
She stated that when she visited the hospital and asked to see the baby, the baby was dressed and wrapped in a blanket. “So after we go to the hospital I ask them if I could see the baby, they said yes and when I see the baby, [it] was clean and it had on vest, napkin and socks and was wrap up in a blanket, so I wanted to know what happened, cause if the baby born dead they wouldn’t dress it,” Sampson told Stabroek News.
Sampson stated that on Thursday after the surgery, doctors had said that Reid was critical and needed to be transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC).
Reid’s cousin, Tracy Lampkin, who accompanied her to the GPHC, stated that when she arrived there, she saw her cousin hooked up to various machines and lying unconscious. “Then the doctors called us into a meeting— four doctors and two nurses at the Georgetown Hospital— and they explain to us what transpired— what they found when they did a surgery on her too,” Lampkin said. The woman added that doctors questioned them about their knowledge of the drug Cytotec, to which they responded they only knew that it was a drug that induces labour in pregnant women.
“They (doctors) said well, they overdose Cytotec and also they tried to give her an antiseptic or something and after they gave her that, it caused reaction in the body and that is when the placenta dislocated from the child and start traveling upwards,” Lampkin related. She added that they were told that subsequent to that, Reid went into shock and began haemorrhaging and when a surgery was done to find the source of the bleeding, nothing was found. “They applied packs into the belly to try to see if the bleeding would stop and they close her up because they didn’t see anything wrong,” Reid’s cousin added.
Lampkin told Stabroek News that on Friday they were informed that doctors had administered about two and a half litres of blood but by that time, Reid’s organs were already shutting down, so the blood which was being administered was being rejected by her body. Subsequently, they were told that the doctors at the New Amsterdam Hospital had taken the baby and removed Reid’s uterus. Lampkin said that the doctors at GPHC had stated that there wasn’t much more that they could have done, as they received the patient (Reid) from New Amsterdam in that state.
Reid died later on Friday at the GPHC.
According to Sampson, a post mortem (PM) examination which was conducted on the baby showed that the baby died as a result of a lack of blood and oxygen. A PM was, however, not carried out on Reid’s body.
Reid leaves to mourn five children between the ages of 14 to 22. Lampkin told Stabroek News that the family is now having a hard time, as she took four of the children in her care and does not know how to tell them what exactly happened to their mother. “This whole situation leave me in a chaos because the kids are here and they’re asking so many questions and I honestly don’t know what to tell them. They’re not eating and so on,” Lampkin added.
“We need answers, we need to know why a strong woman that was doing fine in her pregnancy just died,” Lampkin said.
Reid’s relatives are hoping that they can get some clarity as to what exactly caused her death and who is responsible.
