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Premature “baby’s” death at West Dem… No resuscitation attempts for foetuses below 28 weeks – MoPH PRO
The dead child’s mother,
Vishawanie Persaud
The premature baby who died recently at the West Demerara Regional Hospital was 25 weeks old. It is therefore being regarded by local health authorities as being more of a non-viable foetus than an actual living child.
Criticisms dominated social media a few weeks ago after a video of what appeared to have been a developed child – breathing, squirming and making noises, was posted by a relative of the mother, Vishawanie Persaud.
The Crane, West Coast Demerara teen had complained that doctors at the hospital were insensitive and offered no help to her “child.”
“She could’ve lived. I begged them to put her in an incubator, but they refused and left my child to die,” the 19-year-old said.
Terrence Esseboom, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Ministry of Public Health told Kaieteur News, however, that when foetuses are considered non-viable, resuscitation attempts would not be offered.
“Given the understandable public concern over the death of Ms. Persaud’s child, we should clarify a few issues. A viable foetus is a “baby” which has reached a stage of development to enable survival outside of the mother’s womb after birth. An abortus then, is not a foetus that is viable or that will survive outside after birth,” the PRO said.
He explained that the viability of a foetus “is a function of biomedical and technological capacities of an institution. As a consequence, globally, there is still disagreement about when a foetus is viable.”
In different parts of the world these capacities vary. In the United States for example, viability currently occurs at 24 weeks with the chances of survival charted at 40 to 70 percent.
In Japan, viability stands at 22 weeks, with slightly higher chances of survival, but poorer quality of life.
It was pointed out that Guyana’s healthcare system is only equipped with the human resources and medical technologies to effectively care for premature babies with a gestational age of 28 weeks.
“Or if it has a birth weight greater than or equal to 1,000 grams, for pregnancies where the dates are uncertain…this age and weight gives us much more room to manoeuvre,” Esseboom said.
The young mother claimed that this is how she received her breathing child – wrapped in a piece of paper and placed in this bed pan
However, even with the age and weight optimum, the PRO pointed out that there are other factors that influence viability. These include the presence of infectious diseases, the premature rupture of the water bag with the subsequent decrease in amniotic fluid, drug use, diabetes etc.
“Although it is the desire of every physician to save even the most premature of lives, it is sadly not in their human power to do so. There is not enough evidence to support prolonging the life of a non-viable foetus with possible neurological or systemic damage or any hope of survival with an acceptable quality of life,” Esseboom said.
He added that the Ministry’s policy though, is that all women admitted at public hospitals with impending preterm delivery, must be counselled by medical practitioners.
However, Persaud told this newspaper that after the delivery, the doctor told her that “the baby was alive,” but went further to ask, “Yuh wan’t we dump it in the bin one time?”
The teen, who also has a two-year-old son said that her “baby” was brought to her wrapped in a piece of white paper and placed in a bed pan.
“Me na seh that my child would’ve lived forever. I know it was a premature baby, but them coulda treat my baby better than this. She was alive.
She was not dead. They could’ve tried to be li’l understanding or something, but wha they did to me was heartless,” Persaud cried.
Esseboom said that the Health Ministry continues to make investments in the area of “training Paediatric doctors and the addition of new medical technologies that have most recently helped us sustain life at the earliest age cited for protocol and hopes to see future improvement of our service.”
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