Probe launched at West Dem Hospital following death of newborn transferred to GPHC-Couple believes negligence, inoperable theatre might have contributed

Mar 28, 2019 News

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A Plantain Walk, West Bank Demerara couple is mourning the loss of their newborn, a development which has triggered an investigation at the Region Three West Demerara Regional Hospital to determine if negligence was the cause.
Senior hospital officials confirmed that a probe has been launched into the incident, but are convinced that protocol was followed from the point of admission to the subsequent referral of Nicola Alli, 18, the mother of the dead baby.
However, the woman and her reputed husband, Orlando Gibbons, are convinced that the hospital must accept some culpability. This is owing to the Gibbons’s report that Alli’s repeated cries to be attended to were ignored and might have delayed the process of delivery and perhaps even been a contributing factor to the eventual death of his first child – a baby boy.
A delayed birth, according to medical reports, is said to occur when circumstances prevent an infant from being delivered during the normal time frame. It is said, too, that if immediate medical intervention is provided, the infant may only suffer minor conditions and will go on to heal without problems.
However, a delayed birth can also result in more serious medical issues, especially if a traumatic birth injury occurs.
The still distraught Gibbons who’d already pick the name Jahiem, for his son, told this publication that he is still recovering from emotional hurt and his wife simply cannot stop crying.
“I don’t know what to do,” said Gibbons as he chronicled his wife’s experience at the West Demerara Hospital.
He recalled that his wife, who was attending clinic regularly at the very hospital, started to experience some severe abdominal pains Saturday. Alli, Gibbons recalled, decided to visit the hospital in order to be examined.
Upon arrival, Gibbons said that health workers found that the woman was manifesting early signs of labour and was admitted as a result.
“On Saturday morning she wake up and say she feeling pain in she stomach and she said she going and check herself at the hospital.”
He asserted that “right through the pregnancy was normal; everything was good. She was going to clinic all the time, right at the Best Hospital [West Dem Hospital].”
Gibbons added that his reputed wife was in pain all day Saturday into Sunday while hospitalised. He recalled, too, that when he arrived at the hospital Sunday around noon he heard his wife screaming in pain.
“I was till outside and I could hear she hollering inside…I wanted to ask them if I couldn’t get a transfer because I ain’t see them doing nothing for she but something tell me leh we wait till the 2:30 [pm] visit. But when I waited I see they start preparing she for an ambulance,” Gibbons recounted.
According to Gibbons, based on the reports he received, the delayed birth might have caused his son to develop a low heart rate. He said he was also told that his wife needed a caesarean section [C-section] instead of a natural delivery.
But what was even more troubling to the man was the news that the hospital’s operating theatre was inoperable for the past two weeks. This therefore meant that the woman had to be transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation for the needed procedure to be conducted, Gibbons shared.
“My problem is that in addition to taking long, long to attend to she [Alli] they know that the theatre wasn’t working and they could’ve transferred she ever since…That is my main concern. I believe if she was transferred earlier my son could have been alive,” Gibbons reasoned.
In addition, the man, who drove behind the ambulance, said that when it arrived at the Vreed-en-Hoop junction the ambulance stopped for a nurse on board to exit. This, too, was of concern to Gibbons since, according to him, “this was an emergency. How is it that they could be stopping at that busy junction to drop off some nurse when my son was literally dying?”
At the Georgetown Public Hospital the baby continued to have a low heart rate but was eventually pronounced dead, much to the disappointment of his parents.
“I need people to know what really happen at this hospital because this was just negligence especially since they already know that the theatre wasn’t working, and they knew full well she would’ve needed to get cut [C-section],” Gibbons argued.
When contacted for a comment on the man’s complaint, a senior hospital official would only say that an investigation has been launched which will ascertained whether there was any mismanagement of the patient resulting in the death of the baby.

 

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