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Investigation into death of young mother at halfway stage – Dr Rambaran
Dr Madan Rambaran
“We are not trying to lay blame. This investigation is merely intended to see what happened so that we can prevent a similar occurrence in the future.”
Director of Medical and Professional Services at the Georgetown Public Hospital, Dr Madan Rambaran, made this disclosure recently when he commented on an ongoing investigation into the death of a young mother at the institution.
The young woman, 17-year-old Tandica Williams, met her demise four days after giving birth to a healthy baby boy. However the circumstances leading up to the woman’s death has been a major cause for concern to her family, especially her mother, Debra Armstrong. Armstrong said that something must have gone undetected and thus may have resulted in her daughter’s untimely death.
According to Dr Rambaran, at the moment the investigation is just about halfway through. He said that the process is very meticulous; that it entails looking at everything and everyone that was involved with tending to Williams when she visited the hospital.
“It is the whole process we are looking at. From the time that she came in we are looking at what happened and what did not happen, and whether anything could have been done differently even in terms of what management could have done to prevent the situation.”
He underscored the point though that the findings of the investigation are in no way intended to blame any individual but rather to determine whether there is a need to improve the way certain procedures are engaged.
Williams, according to reports, died on Wednesday October 7 while a patient at the public hospital. This newspaper was informed that since Williams’s death, which was deemed clinical in nature, Dr Rambarran has taken up the sole responsibility to investigate the matter after which a report should be submitted to the Chief Executive Officer of the hospital, Mr Michael Khan.
Williams, who resided at Meadow Bank, East Bank Demerara, had given birth on Saturday October 3. She was admitted the previous night. However, according to Armstrong, the medical officials had had some difficulty removing her daughter’s afterbirth. The woman is of the belief that while efforts were made to remove the afterbirth, it still was not completely removed, a development she feels that could have led to her daughter’s demise.
“She (Williams) tell me that some fat nurse was using her knee to press her stomach area to help remove the afterbirth…but like not everything come down. She said that the nurse said that she had to do that before it (afterbirth) fly up and kill she (Williams).”
Nonetheless, Williams appeared to be well enough and was discharged three days later. However, Armstrong related that her daughter developed a dreadful pain in her upper stomach area which saw her being re-admitted to the hospital the same day. “She came home walking and everything was good but… she started crying out for this pain in she stomach. So I say no sense I keep her here because I is not a doctor or a nurse.”
Armstrong said that upon her daughter’s admission to the hospital a x-ray was done and a decision was made to monitor her closely. The woman said that she confidently left her daughter in the care of the hospital officials around 05:00 hours. It was around 09:00 hours the following day that she got a call from her daughter who was requesting to come home. “She just tell me she want me come now, now, now. So I go back and I see she. She was just delirious talking all sorts of madness. I tell she I can’t carry she home like this…I seh the doctors here and they can look at you.”
Soon after Armstrong recounted that she learnt that her daughter’s heart had stopped. This she said saw medical officials engaging an urgent battle to revive her.
A senior management official of the hospital had told this newspaper, the same day of publication that an investigation into the matter had commenced. However, the official had declined to comment further, adding that on completion of the investigation a release will be made available detailing the findings.
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