Baby dies awaiting medevac out of Region One

Aug 15, 2026 News

Kaieteur News – A family from Moruca, Region One, is demanding justice and answers from authorities after their three-day-old son died on Thursday at the Mabaruma Regional Hospital while awaiting a medical evacuation for further care.

The family believes the baby may have survived had the evacuation been arranged in time.

Stacy Correia of Moruca, Region One holding her baby boy after he passed away on Thursday.

The infant, born on 10th August, 2026, was the son of Stacy Correia, a healthcare worker attached to the Matthews Ridge (Pakera) Hospital. A close relative told Kaieteur News on Friday that Correia began feeling pain on Sunday afternoon and went to the Matthews Ridge Hospital, which referred her to the Port Kaituma Hospital. From there, she was referred again — this time to the Mabaruma Regional Hospital — that same night, after being deemed a high-risk case.

According to the relative, Correia called shortly after giving birth early Monday morning to say that the baby had arrived and that both of them were fine. Throughout Monday, the relative checked in periodically, and by the afternoon learned that the baby had developed breathing problems.
“Throughout the day she said she didn’t get to hold him because he was in the birthing room, and when the other nurse came to take over the shift, she said she found the baby looking blue. When they checked his RBS (Random Blood Sugar), it was 23” — a dangerously low reading requiring immediate medical attention, the family said.
Once the breathing difficulty was discovered, healthcare staff placed the baby on a CPAP machine to assist his breathing.
By Tuesday, when the relative checked in again, she learned the baby’s condition had worsened and that the hospital was planning to transfer him to Georgetown for specialised care. “On Tuesday, they said they wanted to send him out, but there wasn’t any available space anywhere.
So Wednesday, they ended up calling back again, and West Demerara Regional Hospital had a space. Tuesday and Wednesday was when they kept telling her that they might have to refer him,” the relative explained. Complicating matters, the hospital was also experiencing power outages that affected the oxygen equipment — another factor prompting the push to transfer the baby out of the region. “The doctors at the NICU were consulting other doctors, saying that they were having constant power outages, and every time [the baby] came off the machine, they had to bag him,” the relative said.

The baby died on Thursday afternoon, amid the same ongoing complications.
The relative maintains that had an emergency medevac been available once the breathing problems began, the child would likely still be alive.
Devastated, the family is now seeking answers from authorities as to why a medical evacuation could not be arranged in time. They are also asking whether, in the absence of an available local flight, contact was made with the Guyana Defence Force for medevac assistance.
Correia remains at the Mabaruma Hospital and is expected to travel by boat today (Saturday) to return home to Moruca to bury her son.

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Mabaruma Hospital, Matthews Ridge Hospital, Moruca, Port Kaituma Hospital, Region One, Stacy Correia, West Demerara Regional Hospital

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