The husband of maternity patient, Nadira Tulsie, of 41 Miss Phoebe, Port Mourant, Corentyne, who died at around 9 pm last Saturday, is seeking answers as to why his wife was transferred to the COVID-19 hospital in Georgetown as she was fully vaccinated and did not show any signs of the virus.
Vicky Gangapersaud told Stabroek News that his five-months pregnant wife who suffered from asthma went to the Port Mourant Hospital around 5 am on Saturday because she ‘took in’ with the condition. He said the nurse put her outside to sit and wait. At around 8 am the nurse called her inside and gave her an injection, then told her to wait outside again. The nurse then called her back inside and transferred her to the New Amsterdam Hospital from where she was subsequently transferred to the COVID hospital in Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown.
Gangapersaud said that he did not know at that time that the doctors would have transferred her to the COVID hospital but instead his brother went to the Georgetown Public Hospital thinking that she was there. He said that he did not see the need for her to go to the Liliendaal facility since she was fully vaccinated and she was with the family and there were no symptoms of COVID.
He said around 9 pm on Saturday the hospital him called him and said, “Her heart stopped pumping, and she’s not coming back, her heart failed.” He said the body was taken to the Memorial Gardens Funeral Home where a post mortem is to be conducted on the body. He still does not understand how she ended up in that situation because she was born with asthma and “there is no way she can contract COVID, she was with us all the time, and if she had that we will have it too. Also she’s fully vaccinated, just that she’s asthmatic.”
On Monday Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony stated that two maternity deaths at the Georgetown Public Hospital over the weekend occurred because of complications and announced that an internal investigation into both cases has begun.
Further, an external independent investigation will be done to ascertain if there were any gaps during the delivery of healthcare to both patients.
Speaking during Monday’s COVID-19 briefing, the minister also noted that it is the GPH’s protocol that maternal deaths occurring at the institution undergo a thorough internal review by a special staff committee. An external investigation will be done by the maternal mortality review committee (a body independent of the hospital). Dr Anthony said that all documentation relating to both cases has been sent to the committees and that findings from the internal and external reviews will aid the ministry in addressing any gaps in delivering maternal health care.
He did not identify the two women but said that in the first case, a 40-year-old Region Six patient (Tulsie) died on Saturday at the Liliendaal Infectious Diseases Hospital after she and her unborn child developed a number of complications. Anthony said that the patient was first admitted to the New Amsterdam Hospital, and after having developed a number of complications, had to be intubated and later referred to Georgetown. The patient and unborn child died at the COVID hospital despite numerous attempts by doctors to save both.
In the second case, which occurred on Sunday, the hospital disclosed that a 19-year-old patient died and one of her twins was stillborn. Anthony disclosed that this patient had preeclampsia (a high blood pressure disorder) even before being admitted to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre. He explained that this condition resulted in the patient having several seizures. The patient was then referred to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where she died as a result of her complications.
These two deaths followed closely on the passing of two other women and their unborn children at the GPH. On October 20, Rashanna Dindayal, 31, and her unborn child died. Rashanna, a mother of two from Lodge, Georgetown, apparently collapsed at the hospital while making her way to the washroom unattended. She was said to have suffered a severe head wound and died thereafter.
In the second case, on October 29, a 39-year-old mother of five, Navita Maraj, and her unborn child, died at the GPH at around 1:30 am. According to her husband, Phillip James, she had been administered oxytocin tablets to induce labour. Based on his account, she was considered a high-risk patient because of an unspecified complication, and it had been agreed that she would undergo a Caesarean section. There is now a fundamental disagreement between him and the attending doctor over whether it was a C-section or a traditional delivery that she had agreed upon. The hospital has not provided further updates to the respective families of the deceased.
