Latest update November 26th, 2024 1:00 AM
PM inconclusive, samples taken, investigation launched
… Newborn baby’s death
An investigation into the death of the newborn baby Saturday morning at the Georgetown Public Hospital, has been launched and is expected to be completed before Friday, according to a senior medical official attached to the hospital.
Twenty-three-year old first time mother, Savita Paltoo, is alleging that her baby died after a doctor ignored information on her clinic card which showed that the child should have been delivered via Caesarean section.
Savita Paltoo
This newspaper has now been told that the matter was a clinical one and that the requisite persons to comment on the incident were not available.
Meanwhile, angry relatives yesterday opined that the matter is being swept under the carpet, since according to them, they had to demand that a post mortem be conducted on the baby.
The baby’s grandmother, Gita Paltoo, yesterday said that it was only after Chief Executive Officer Michael Khan intervened, that a post mortem was done.
“Is only after we start behaving bad and Khan call back the pathologist because he was already gone,” said the grandmother.
The woman said that the examination was done, but to her surprise it failed to give the cause of death, further enraging relatives.
She said that officials told her that it was inconclusive and that they took samples for further testing.
“They seh them ain’t find the cause of death…..so they take samples to send overseas,” the grandmother said. After the confusion at the mortuary the baby was finally buried late yesterday afternoon.
The young mother had told this publication that last Monday, she was given a referral letter from the Plaisance Health Centre to take to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
She visited the GPHC on Tuesday morning. A clinic card which was seen by this newspaper stated that because of the baby’s position, vaginal delivery would have been a high risk.
After being admitted to the GPHC on Tuesday, Paltoo said that she started having severe pains and began bleeding on Friday morning.
According to Paltoo, a doctor ordered an ultra sound but alleged that hospital officials refused to give her any details about the findings of the ultrasound.
She was taken back to the maternity ward where nurses began giving her intravenous drips, to help induce labour.
This newspaper was told that about three hours later, Paltoo was rushed to the delivery room, even though doctors had stated that a vaginal delivery was not to be done. The distraught woman said that after she was rushed to the labour room by a nurse, the female doctor there refused to examine her.
“She tell de nurse I ain’t ready…..because de baby not ready to come.”
According to the woman, the nurse and the female doctor began having a heated argument and it was the nurse who was left to tend to Paltoo.
She said the nurse filled up the Caesarian chart and Paltoo was rushed to the operating theater, late Friday afternoon.
After hearing that she was being taken to the operating theater, Paltoo thought her nightmare would have been over.
But she said that instead of Caesarian surgery, the doctors in the theatre forced her to deliver vaginally. However, that failed and doctors had to make a surgical incision to enlarge the vagina and assist in childbirth.
The woman said that one nurse told her that the baby’s breathing was low and that his heart beat was irregular.
The baby spent one week in the ICU and passed away on Saturday.
Meanwhile, a source within the hospital said that because the doctors did not heed the advice for a Caesarian section, there was insufficient oxygen during delivery, forcing the infant to slip into a coma.
This also caused severe brain damage and saw survival being slim.
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