Malpractice suspected in 17 yr-old mother’s death at GPHC

Oct 21, 2015 News

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– relative contemplates legal action to get answers

 

Patricia Allen is contemplating legal action following the death of her 17-year-old daughter at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) on Sunday. Allen’s daughter, Nikacia Allen, passed away at the public institution after giving birth to her third child about a month ago.
The young Allen was reportedly admitted on September 20, 2015 and delivered her third baby girl the following day.
She remained hospitalised until she passed away. Like her two previous deliveries, Nikacia Allen delivered her latest baby by way of Caesarean Section (C-Section).
Medical professionals have overtime maintained that with each C-Section a woman undergoes, her risk during delivery is increased. “They told me that it could be risky but I know that three (children) you could get…one of my aunts get three, one my cousins get three…I know other people who get three and after three they tie them off,” said Patricia Allen.
But according to Patricia Allen, she was not even aware that her daughter was pregnant until after she returned from the interior mere days before being admitted to the GPHC to deliver her baby.
The woman disclosed that she was concerned about her daughter after delivery. She claimed that she took her daughter to the hospital but was worried that days later she was still bleeding.  “I didn’t ask them (the doctors) anything at first but a few days after, I ask a doctor if the bleeding stop. He said “no” and I asked why and he said that it was because the (attending) doctor took out my daughter’s womb…I asked how the doctor could take out my daughter’s womb and didn’t ask me to sign any paper or anything like that,” said Patricia Allen.
The woman related that officials of the hospital subsequently invited her to a meeting at which point she was informed that the decision to remove her daughter’s womb was due to the fact that it was infected.
“I asked how come the womb was infected and the child is healthy?  I believe that if the womb was infected the child would have ended up dead…so I asked how the womb was infected and he said he don’t know but they had to do that to save her life…but her life wasn’t saved…her life just gone down the drain,” said the distraught woman.
“She was just lying there for a month and every time she look like she recovering from it, they keep sedating her…the pain was too much for her,” added the woman who said that she was also informed that there were also issues with her daughter’s brain that could have led to her untimely death.
According to the woman, the hospital has not promised an investigation into the case since “they just close off right there…they had a tube down her throat for nearly 18 days. I went one day and I see blood coming through her mouth and I called the doctor’s attention to it; they had to do a surgery for that.”
Ahead of her demise, Patricia Allen said that her daughter appeared physically well. According to her, she had travelled to the interior to seek employment, leaving in her care, her older children, a four and two-year-old.
The woman yesterday disclosed that after her daughter gave birth to her second child, a doctor had implanted a contraceptive coil in her.  The device was supposed to remain intact for five years but according to Patricia Allen it had to be removed since it was causing her to bleed frequently.
“I personally advised her to use other contraceptives such as condom and so…I didn’t know that she was pregnant,” said the woman as she related that she had left her Matthew’s Ridge, Region One home four years earlier to help her daughter raise her children. They were residing at Lusignan, East Coast Demerara.
Patricia Allen is now left to care for three grandchildren and was yesterday keen on highlighting what happened to her daughter in the hope that other families do not have to experience a devastating loss as she has.  “My daughter is already dead but other young people’s lives could be saved if something is done to ensure that they don’t suffer like my daughter.”
“My daughter was strong, she didn’t have to die like this…she has left me and her three children…I don’t even have a place of my own and I have to take care of three grandchildren by myself,” said the 51-year-old Patricia Allen.
While the woman has not yet filed an official complaint at the hospital, she has plans to take whatever possible action to have the matter thoroughly investigated. Yesterday, the woman was at the South Road office of attorney-at-law Jonas Coddett where she was seeking legal advice.

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