Latest update April 7th, 2025 12:08 AM
Mother critical after third caesarean section
– Multiple c-section can be risky – Health Minister
By Romila Boodram
Shawn Syfox said that he would have never allowed his wife to have her third child by caesarean section if he had known it could kill her.
His wife, a Tucville Terrace, Georgetown mother, Alexis Syfox, nearly haemorrhaged to death on the operating table at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) on Wednesday as a result of placenta accreta, a life-threatening condition.
Placenta accreta occurs when all or part of the placenta attaches abnormally to the wall of the uterus.
The woman recently gave birth to a daughter who is said to be in a stable condition at the hospital.
But doctors were forced to perform a hysterectomy (surgery to remove the uterus or womb).
She is now battling for her life on a life support machine in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
The placenta is an incredible organ that for nine months sustains the life of an unborn child.
But it can also be deadly as a result of repeated c-section procedures.
Sometimes, for no explainable reason, the placenta grows abnormally and invades the uterine wall.
Women who have had previous caesarean sections are at greater risk for the condition and the risk rises each time she undergoes another.
In an interview with this newspaper, Shawn Syfox said that he and his relatives are praying for his wife’s condition to improve.
“If I had known this would have been dangerous, we would have never go through with the pregnancy,” a terrified Syfox noted.
He explained that his wife went to the hospital on Tuesday to deliver her fourth child.
“She was strong. On Wednesday she went into the theatre to get the baby, and after surgery, doctor said that she had placenta accreta and she lost a lot of blood,” Syfox recalled.
Battling for life: Alexis Syfox
Minister of Public Health Dr. George Norton
Kaieteur News was told that the woman also suffered from two cardiac arrests and had to be resuscitated.
A very disturbed Syfox stated that in a case like this, family planning is very important so that the mother and her family could be aware of all the medical conditions involved.
“This is where family planning comes in because the doctor could have explained her condition to us and we would have been aware of what was going on,” the baby’s father revealed.
He pointed out too that his wife was informed that she could have had a third caesarean section but when she had the operation, doctors informed relatives that the third pregnancy via surgery was a bad idea.
Explaining Alexis Syfox condition, Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton said that the patient had her third cesarean section which was a very complicated case.
“She bled unavoidably and when you lose that amount of blood, it affects the heart, so she crashed twice and was brought back to life,” the Minister explained.
He revealed that when the woman was resuscitated, she ended up with renal dysfunction, which resulted in her being placed on a life support machine.
Kaieteur news was told that while three caesarean sections are advisable, it can be risky.
“My advice is rather than stopping at three, I would say two. Even though science may say that you have no evidence to make such statements, with our situation in Guyana, I would advise mothers not to have more than two caesarean sections,” the Minister stated.
He added, “Every time you damaged that wound by cutting it open, and it heals back, it does not heal back as a normal tissue and then to cut it once again, that’s two abnormalities.”
According to Dr. Norton, when the placenta fits onto the walls of the uterus and seeps through, you call it placenta accreta because it not only gets into the wall of the uterus but it goes through at times and attach itself to the bladder.
“If the placenta is right where you are going to make that incision to take out the baby, then it means you have to cut through the placenta. Now when you do that, the patient would bleed and it will affect both mother and baby.”
This newspaper was further told that when the bleeding is too much, doctors would eventually have to perform a hysterectomy.
“In order to take out the womb, you have to separate it from the bladder (that the placenta had caused to become attached) and that can be tricky, the Minister said.
He said that more emphasis will be placed on family planning to help mothers and their relatives to understand their condition more.
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