Neglect suspected in newborn’s death

Jan 11, 2018 News

---

• GPHC to investigate

A baby girl was pronounced dead Monday morning hours after she was delivered at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation [GPHC]. The situation has left her, 21-year-old mother, Tricia Benjamin, in a depressed state.

Calls are now being made for the hospital to investigate the circumstances that led to the child’s demise.

This is in light of the fact that the young mother, as well as her relatives, is convinced that the death of the child was due to negligence on the part of health workers.

Although the grieving woman is still hospitalised at the GPHC, her relatives are on a mission to ensure that justice for what they believe was an untimely passing of one of their own is realised.

Bringing the situation to the attention of this public, yesterday was Ms. Eslyn David, mother of Benjamin’s common-law husband, Elon David.  They all share the same domicile at 109 Bonasika Street, Section K, Campbellville.

Eslyn said that the now dead child was the first born for the couple and from all indication all was going well with the pregnancy.  She, however, noted that towards the end of last year an ultrasound, done at a private hospital, revealed that the baby was in the breech position.

The woman said that this was brought to the attention of health workers who attended to Benjamin.

Recounting the days leading up to the unfortunate incident, Eslyn, a vendor in the vicinity of the Stabroek Market area, said that it was some time after she left for work last week Monday morning that her daughter-in-law became overwhelmed with symptoms consistent with going into labour. Benjamin, she said, was rushed to the hospital by a neighbour.

On learning of this development, Eslyn said that she too headed to the hospital.

“When I reached to the hospital and I asked about her [Benjamin], a nurse told me that she was in the labour room but she was just three cm [centimetres]. I said okay and I left,” recalled Eslyn. She was excited that her grand-baby was well on the way.

But further enquires about her daughter-in-law into the night and throughout the next day revealed that there was no progression in the delivery process although the baby was full-term.

According to Eslyn, based on conversations she had with Benjamin, she was feeling as if the baby was very low and communicated this to a doctor. Eslyn said that based on Benjamin’s disclosure, the response from a health worker she described as a doctor was, “‘Shut yuh mouth and lie down right there before I left the baby fuh dead in yuh and kill yuh’.”

Eslyn was not in a position yesterday to share the name of the health worker in question but she insisted “My daughter-in-law know good is who tell she that.”

Benjamin was sent home on Tuesday and for the next three days, there were no further signs of the baby exiting the womb.  “At home, she seemed okay but there was some bleeding…the doctors and nurses said that wasn’t anything to worry about…They said she needed to exercise,” Eslyn related.

She disclosed that on Saturday, Benjamin started to complain again about the baby being too low and that this was preventing her from even sitting properly. Not wanting her daughter-in-law to remain at home alone, Eslyn said that she invited her to go down to her vending spot to spend the day.

However, it wasn’t long after that she [Eslyn] left to purchase some Guinness in the market and returned she learnt that her daughter-in-law was in labour.  “She come and tell how she clothes mess up and I realise she water bag burst,” recalled Eslyn who wasted no time in rushing Benjamin back to hospital.

“I took her back to the GPHC and I ask the nurses please see what y’all can do for she because she water bag burst and the baby breech,” Eslyn recounted.

She recalled, too, that Benjamin claimed to have no pain upon admission to hospital last Saturday but by Sunday morning she’d telephoned home her informing how a nurse was about to induce labour.

Eslyn said that she was concerned about Benjamin’s disclosure about moves to induce labour especially since the baby was still breeched.

“I told her, you not suppose to get no tablet, you suppose to get a C-Section,” said Eslyn who decided to head to the hospital to check in on Benjamin. “I asked her what she wanted to eat and she tell me, a fried rice. She started telling me how they want push some tablet up in her. She tell me how a nurse wanted to push some pieces then a doctor said no, use a whole tablet…I started to tell she if anything happen to my grandchild I gon reach to the doctors and nurses,” Eslyn related.

By the time she reached to the hospital, she disclosed that Benjamin was already in the operating theatre. Shortly after her arrival she recalled, “I see a doctor running with a little baby in his hand…I asked about Tricia Benjamin but a nurse answer and tell me that the mother still in theatre but baby already out.”

Upon further enquiries, Eslyn was informed that her granddaughter was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit but claimed that no doctor or nurse was willing to update her of the status of the baby.

However, Eslyn said that she was eventually informed that following the move to induce labour Benjamin started to haemorrhage and soon after the baby’s heart rate started to slow down. Health workers, Eslyn said she was told, had to resort to the C-Section procedure that she had expected in the first place.

According to distraught woman, she was able to have a brief conversation with a doctor who attended to the baby. “The doctor’s words to me were – ‘I don’t really know what play out but when they called me, the baby heart beat was 50 [beats] but a normal baby heart rate should be 150.’ He actually tell me that he was pumping air into a dead baby and how he couldn’t do anything to revive baby so he had to hook her up to a machine,” related Eslyn.

The entire Sunday, Esylyn was unable to see her daughter-in-law since she was still under anaesthetic. But, according to her, she knew something was terribly wrong when she was granted access to see the baby.

“Baby look like she was taking deep breaths and slime was coming out of her nose…I see a nurse and I say something wrong here but she had nothing properly to tell me. She look at me and then look at a nurse and doctor passing and they say baby going like that because she on a machine and that was it,” Eslyn said.

The woman said that not only was little or no information forthcoming but the attitude of some of the health workers she approached for answers was nothing less than haughty.

By Monday morning, Eslyn’s worse fears were confirmed when she got a call from a nurse informing her of an emergency. Upon her arrival at the hospital, she was told her grand-daughter had passed away.

Compounding the distress of the family was the fact that the health workers only then allowed the new mother to see her baby.

“Can you believe? They didn’t even give her a chance to see baby before she was pronounced dead…She has been crying ever since she saw that baby…I don’t understand how they could do that to her,” said Eslyn.

A post mortem operation conducted on the remains of the child yesterday suggested that the cause of death was neonatal lung distress and mild brain edema.

But Eslyn has not been taking the matter lightly. She insisted yesterday that she will not rest until those culpable for the death of her granddaughter and the distress of her daughter-in-law answer for their negligence.

Eslyn said that she has since made a formal complaint at the GPHC and a promise has been made that the matter will be investigated. This development was confirmed yesterday by GPHC’s Public Relations Officer, Ms. Mitzy Campbell who said, “We are investigating that matter.”

---

---