Woman accuses Woodlands Hospital of negligence

Apr 16, 2011 News

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…claims their actions almost killed her

Kristen Macklingam

What started as one of the most joyful and fully anticipated moments of a young woman’s childbirth experience ended up as the most horrific and painful incident that she ever had to cope with and almost led to her death.
Twenty-six-year-old Andrea Davis of 196 Nelson Street, Mocha Arcadia, East Bank Demerara told Kaieteur News that she was pregnant with her first child last September when she kept reading about maternity deaths.
She said that these kept occurring rapidly in a short period of time at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
She was scheduled to join a clinic and out of fear for both herself and her unborn baby, she decided that she would register at a private hospital and attend a private clinic as opposed to utilising the services of the GPHC.
Davis explained that she visited Dr. Balwant Singh’s office to join his clinic but she was unable to meet with the doctor because he was performing surgery. She said that she and her fiancé visited another well-known doctor on Camp Street.
That doctor was not in office on the first visit and upon the second, the doctor asked Davis to return later because she was rushing to help another patient who was on the verge of giving birth.
Because Davis was experiencing some pain and discomfort, she decided that she could no longer postpone joining a clinic and ventured to obtain the services of Dr. Neville Gobin at the Woodlands Hospital.
Kaieteur News understands that whenever Dr. Gobin was out of the country, another doctor named Asha Purit would “fill in” for him at the hospital. When Davis delivered her baby on April 1, 2011, Dr. Gobin was not present.
Davis claimed that two midwives took the necessary information from her and called Dr. Gobin, whom she expected to see during the delivery of her baby. She said that she was disappointed when he did not show up.
On the day she delivered her baby boy, Kaieteur News understands that Davis was in the shower at the Woodlands Hospital when she felt dizzy. While showering she felt something sticking out of the area the midwives had sutured.
While examining the area, Davis pulled out a piece of gauze that was used to stop the bleeding just after delivery. She said that she was assisted by a Nurse Duncan to her bed after she almost collapsed.
The new mother stated that she was experiencing fever that day and that the stitches were very painful, which she felt was strange, since she could not sit properly while other mothers seemed to be at ease and in comfortable positions.
Davis also experienced “cold sweating” and was given “Panadol” to treat the fever she had developed.
The woman also saw one of the midwives who participated in her baby’s delivery and told her that “a piece of gauze was sticking out”. She said that the woman coolly responded, “Oh. Did you get it out?”
Davis was surprised at the calm reaction of the midwife.
What surprised her even more was when she was ready to be discharged and the hospital presented the bill of expenses. There was a charge of $25,000 for the services of Dr. Gobin during delivery, for which he was not present.
There was also a $5,000 charge (which Davis was not aware of) for another doctor on the bill documented as fees for Dr. H. Persaud. The total of the bill was $82,330 which Davis’s family readily paid and had Davis check out of the hospital as soon as she was ready to be discharged.
After safely arriving at home, Davis complained to her family that she was still not feeling well, and everyone noticed that she began to become “darker”.
Davis and her family told Kaieteur News that precisely on the day after she returned home she excreted a chunk of clot.”
That was the beginning of her hemorrhage.
With that, the family immediately rushed Davis to the Woodlands Hospital and she was admitted by Dr. Purit, who took her directly to the theatre for surgery.
This publication was told that Davis’s blood pressure was very high and during her second admission at the hospital, she required two units of blood.
The young woman recalls hearing Dr. Purit telling someone at the hospital upon her arrival, “Don’t shutdown the theatre, someone is coming now. We have to do a cleanout.”
A piece of placenta (afterbirth) had been left inside of her.
Davis spent about four days at the hospital again, where she claims that some of the staff at the said  hospital did not treat her properly.
Davis stated that when this ordeal was almost over,her fiancé, Chris, questioned the bill.
Chris then confronted Dr. Purit and contended that if it wasn’t the hospital’s negligence, the family would not have had to incur unnecessary expenses. The doctor told the man, “You have to pay the bill; it is a private hospital and you have to pay it…You look like trouble”.
When Davis was finally released on the second occasion, she explained that she visited Dr. Purit before leaving the premises, and she told the doctor that she did not “like the treatment at the hospital and I don’t think I should have been incurring these expenses.”
Davis added that Dr. Purit replied, “I don’t know what you are planning on doing. If you were in America it was going to happen. It is not our fault. All of these are complications of maternity.”
According to Davis and her family, as soon as they left the hospital, they visited the Ministry of Health and spoke to a female director there. The family was told “Don’t go to the media, you will make a spectacle of yourself and everyone will know your business. Write a letter and we will take it from there.”
Davis asked this newspaper “If people get scared of the public hospital and the maternity deaths and they are being treated this way at a private hospital, where can expectant mothers go to have safe deliveries?”
Kaieteur News visited Davis at her home where she produced the bills from both occasions when she was admitted at the Woodlands Hospital. There were detailed information concerning the type of treatment(s) and medications she needed on both visits and also the breakdown of the expenses incurred
At the Woodlands Hospital on Thursday, to speak with Dr. Gobin or Dr. Purit, a receptionist on duty told this publication that the doctors had already left for the day. The receptionist was told that the matter was urgent since a patient had visited the newspaper to complaint about her tenure at the hospital and the two doctors were needed to give a comment.
She stated that Kaieteur News should return a telephone call the following day.
Yesterday, more attempts were made by this newspaper to speak with the doctors via telephone but once more it was told that the doctors were unavailable and had “left already”.

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