A Corentyne woman is speaking out about her overnight experience at the New Amsterdam Public Hospital (NAPH), where she said she contracted an infection while giving birth to her first child.
Narvani Beerbusham, 23, of Albion Front, Corentyne, Berbice, yesterday explained to Stabroek News that she was admitted to the NAPH on November 1, just around 3 pm. According to the young mother, she gave birth just around 4 pm and was discharged the following day.
However, she related that she had a very unpleasant experience, describing the one-night stay as a “misery”, but she had no other choice at the time. “When you na get money wah else you can do?”
Beerbusham, who condemned the condition of the hospital, said she could not handle the stench coming from the labour room and the bed she was placed on. “The midwife had to spray one air freshener under the sponge and then that help lil bit. It was stink, and all the blood and the smell was just so bad girl.”
According to her, water was lodged on the washroom floors in the ward and sanitary napkins were overflowing from the bins. “They can’t say is [the] patient fault. Where we suppose to put our pads? If they know it full why they can’t empty it three times a day and how patients go cause water to lodge on the washroom floor”, she questioned.
The young woman acknowledged that after hearing the numerous stories relating to maternal deaths at the hospital, she was extremely scared to give birth there, “because you can go in good and you don’t know how you coming out.”
After being discharged, Beerbusham thought that was the end of her worries and she could now be home and recover with her baby girl, but she quickly discovered that the stitches she received due to the tear she suffered in her vaginal area during delivery were producing a burning sensation.
“I asked my mother to take a picture and show me and then is when I see like the stitch loose,” she explained.
She then decided to head to the Port Mourant Hospital where she was told that she seemingly picked up an infection during her stay at NAPH, in addition to her stitches not being done right.
“Them [Port Mourant Hospital] tell me to come back next day, that they got to treat my infection and then they will stitch me back and them been a tell me to go back to New Amsterdam Hospital to the doctor who stitch me but when I called him he say I got to go see doctor”, she stated.
A confused and frustrated Beerbusham was forced to go to a private institution in Region Six, where she was immediately admitted and treated for her infection and placed under anesthesia and re-stitched.
She spent a total of $160,000 at the institution as she was admitted for a weekend to have the procedure carried out, along with treatment and the subsequent recovery process.
According to information gathered thus far by the woman, her stitches were supposedly done by a midwife and trainee, “and the midwife part stitch good and na loose. I understand people got to train but these are human lives we talking about, these are lives you can’t take chances like that.”
Beerbusham is calling on the authorities to improve the conditions at the New Amsterdam Public Hospital. “I just want them to do their duty and their job because you can’t blame the lil ones like them maids and so because if the big ones were doing their jobs properly and monitoring them and looking into things the place na would a deh like that.”
Privatized
Meanwhile, Regional Chair-man, David Armogan, who on Thursday last was asked about the conditions at NAPH, responded that he has always been of the opinion that the cleaning of the hospital should be privatized, adding, “we have to look towards that because every time we seem to be getting problems with regards to the maids cleaning the hospital.”
“The way I see it, if they cannot perform then the only way to go there is to privatize the cleaning… I believe if somebody take them and supervise properly they will work… Supervision seems to be the problem and we got to correct that,” the chairman opined.
Further, Armogan was questioned about the recent invasion of goats at that same hospital after a video surfaced of the goats running through the institution.
“So there is quite a few things at New Amsterdam Hospital and that should never happen. We have guards at these places, the fence is not damaged, so the only place they [goats] could have come in from is the gates.”
However, guards at the location have reported that there are several parts of the fence that the goats could have entered from.
Armogan disclosed that he has been receiving complaints about a recent incident where persons were being treated after a fight in New Amsterdam but six other persons “went into the hospital to continue the fight.
“The thing is, that matter wasn’t reported to us neither Dr Sharma [Regional Health Officer] so we didn’t know about it until a doctor put it on Facebook.”
However, he noted the police have since sought to locate the persons concerned and to file charges.
“These things are sometimes not reported to us and that’s one of the problems because if they are reported we can be able to take immediate action. What the person in charge of that hospital should have done is to call the police immediately and the police would have responded,” Armogan posited.
On Thursday, following the region’s statutory meeting, a journalist asked Armogan whether the regional administration was satisfied with the performance of the new Chief Executive Officer, Dr Bob Ramnauth, to which Armogan would only say, “well because of all these complaints that we are getting, if you keep getting all these kinds of complaints then it means that things are not going right and if things are not going right then it means, of course, whoever is heading the section has to account for it.”
Additionally, Armogan disclosed that he has also received reports that the guards are soliciting money to allow persons to enter the hospital. “I couldn’t believe it. So we are also calling the guard services people to have the guards desist from doing those sorts of things.”
He noted that they are also having issues with guards placing their relatives in front of persons already in the queue at the institution.
