Money spent but the deaths continue

May 22, 2012 Editorial

Every maternal death is a cause for concern. Childbirth is a natural phenomenon and every minute some woman, somewhere in the world, is giving birth. Most of these women will deliver their babies naturally, but some would have to be assisted. There are those who would deliver by Caesarean section, but all in all, the mothers would survive.
In cases where they die there are complications. Most women become hypertensive during pregnancy and some become diabetic. However, the medical experts all say that these conditions could be controlled. Because of these conditions that could lead to complications, pregnant women are asked to check with clinics.
These routine checks help the woman determine whether there would be complications at birth. In the past, when medical facilities were not as pervasive, indeed the people who undertook to deliver these mothers would try their best, and in odd cases, some women did die. Investigations reveal that maternal deaths are more prevalent in the under-developed societies. The more improved the society, the greater the chance of women doing naturally what they have been doing from the time of creation.
Guyana has been boasting of its expenditure in the medical sector. At every opportunity the government would compare what operates now against what operated prior to 1992. It talks of better facilities, more medical practitioners, and the wider distribution of clinics and hospitals.
Yet for all this, more women seem to be dying. Two years ago, eight women died in a cluster. Most of them died at a Berbice hospital. The government set up a committee to investigate these deaths and found that procedures were not adhered to. There was also the promise of condign action.
The truth is that there have been no reports of the findings. Certainly, there has been no sanction, although Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon said that there was blatant disregard for medical procedures.
There were other deaths—at least three from Linden. More recently, a young mother died after she had given birth and was being transferred from one medical institution to another better suited to deal with medical complications.
We find this situation rather alarming. It means that despite the increased investment in the medical sector, there is not a corresponding improvement in the people who must manage the system. The move to set up the clinics away from the centre was to better help those mothers there. They relied on the travelling midwife, more often than not, an older woman who seemed versed in delivering babies but who was not necessarily qualified. Those were the days when women for the most part delivered their babies at home.
The spate of maternal deaths is cause for concern. We would expect that there would be meaningful investigations and the findings revealed. It is not surprising that whenever there are maternal deaths the relatives of the victims would weep, dry their eyes and pick up the pieces. They do not contemplate legal action because in Guyana it is almost impossible to gain a conviction of medical malpractice. No medical person is known to testify against a colleague in the profession.
For example, there was the case at the West Demerara Regional Hospital where a mother was given a transfusion and died. The woman was given the wrong blood type. If someone with type A blood receives type B, he or she may have a severe homiletic reaction. This can destroy many of his or her red cells and quickly kill the victim.
There was no attempt to seek recourse in the courts because one doctor advised the husband that while blood-typing and cross matching are now routine, errors do occur; that every year people die of homiletic reactions.
The courts would have found a clinical error rather than malpractice. But hospitals do pay some form of compensation to the relatives of the victims. In Guyana, anticipating some form of compensation is like anticipating blood from stone.
So we can only ask that the authorities put measures in place to ensure that the money spent to improve the sector does just that. To ensure the improvement, there must be the insertion of skilled professionals. And above all, there must be close monitoring of the health sector. Less women will die for sure.

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