Latest update December 8th, 2024 4:55 AM
Jun 06, 2013 News
– husband hopes to meet with doctors today for “truthful” answers
Unless officials of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) are able to prove otherwise, Nigel Rodney, is intent on holding medical personnel accountable for the demise of his wife, Luan and their baby daughter.
While reports suggest that the baby was delivered stillborn, information emanating from the hospital revealed that the 28-year-old mother who was admitted on Monday was pronounced dead at 07:50 hours the following day.
In expressing sincerest condolences, the hospital in a statement Tuesday disclosed that an investigation has already been launched into the circumstances surrounding the unfortunate incident.
But according to Rodney, yesterday, a doctor informed him that his wife’s death was caused by a ruptured uterus which resulted in excessive bleeding. It was explained, too, that due to the heavy bleeding there was no way efforts could have saved the baby.
The grieving husband and father, has since found that nurses on duty in the wee hours of the morning when his wife went into labour, were negligent.
He disclosed that since his wife was past her May 22 due date, a doctor Monday night decided to induce labour. “She called me around 10 pm Monday night and tell me that the doctor had inserted a pill in her to help her go into labour but at the time she wasn’t feeling any pain.”
However, the man said that he was reliably informed that around 02:30 hours Tuesday his wife began experiencing labour pains. He said that there are reports that a patient nearby recognised the developing situation and told an attending nurse who simply advised the patient to return to her bed. By the time the patient returned to her bed she observed that Luan, who was by then moaning, was also bleeding.
The man said that he was told that the patient returned to the nurse urging her to attend to the bleeding woman. This state of affairs prompted an emergency reaction on the part of the medical personnel who were soon rushing the woman to the operating theatre in an attempt to save the lives of both mother and child.
However, the desperate moves were not nearly enough to reverse the already progressing situation.
Distressing call
According to the man, who said that he now has to remain strong for his four-year-old daughter, Marsha, whom his wife had delivered at the same hospital incident free, he was plunged into a state of depression when he got a telephone call from a doctor Tuesday morning.
“I had just drop off my daughter at school when my phone rang and the doctor said ‘we got some news for you concerning your wife and if I can come to the hospital’. I keep asking the doctor if she get baby. If she alright? But the doctor just keep telling me ‘I can’t give you any information over the phone’,” disclosed the man yesterday.
In a distraught state he said that he rode his motorcycle to his Bamboo Drive, Meadow Brook, Georgetown, squatting area, home where he related to his mother what the doctor had said.
“I just drop the bike and I say ‘mommy we got to go to the hospital now’. We catch a car and we went there…I was real worried about my wife because I found it strange that the doctor had to call me,” the man revealed.
He said that when he arrived at the medical institution he was taken into a room where he was asked to make himself comfortable before a doctor informed “‘I am sorry to say we have some bad news…your wife is dead’…They told me how my wife’s uterus burst and she was bleeding very heavily internally and because of the amount of bleeding it carry the baby too.”
The man said that according to one of his cousins who is a practising doctor, “once the uterus burst she had a slim chance of surviving but they could have done something to save the baby’s life…Now I ain’t got no baby, I ain’t even got a wife; I can never get back a woman like my wife.”
Ideal pregnancy
Recounting that his wife had no problems with her pregnancy, Rodney said that she was attending clinic regularly. She was in good health and high spirits. He remembers feeling his baby kick and press against his wife’s belly and was only too anxious as the due date neared.
He noted that like his wife’s first pregnancy, the only concern was that her feet had become swollen during the third trimester. “She was fine the whole time it was only her feet start swelling and this time it was a little more but it was understandable because we done know that the baby was big.”
This development however forced the nurses at the Hadfield Street, Georgetown, Clinic which his wife was attending, to refer her to the Georgetown Public Hospital’s clinic. She was required to attend clinic weekly by this time.
The man said that two ultrasounds at separate entities not only revealed that the baby was rather large but that Luan’s due date should be May 22. He took his wife to the Public Hospital on the stated due date but was given another date to return as medical officials there said that she was not ready for delivery.
On Saturday last the man said that he again took his wife to the Public Hospital to be admitted. However, an examination revealed that the woman was still not ready for delivery and therefore she was sent home.
But according to Rodney the report from the hospital was that “everything appeared normal. They said if she didn’t get pains by Monday (June 3) I should carry her back to the hospital and they are going to admit her.”
And since there was no pain on Monday, the man said that he took his wife to the hospital around 10:00 hours. However, he informed that his wife was not admitted until 15:00 hours since according to him a number of other women were ahead of her.
He said that he waited until the 16:00 hours visiting time to see his wife again, adding that “I talked good with her…we had a nice conversation and laugh and suh…I even tell she I ain’t coming back in this ward tomorrow (Tuesday) for you…I passing straight and going up stairs to see my baby. I was done saying how I was gonna model round the ward with me baby.”
The man said that based on the size of the babyrevealed by the ultrasounds it would not have been a surprise if the doctor had recommended that his wife undergo a Caesarean Section.
Answers needed
But according to Rodney although he is a bit calm about the situation he is at a loss as to why a C-Section was not performed on his wife. “If you see this person ain’t got passage go ahead and cut she nah…I understand that they could have even removed the uterus to save her life…This is not something that should have happened to my wife…This whole situation is unacceptable,” lamented Rodney.
The man said that although a doctor gave him a summary of what happened to his wife he was too distressed on Tuesday to even ask any questions at the time. “I was in shock and so I couldn’t even say anything but they have to explain in detail, from beginning to ending, what happened to my wife,” asserted the man yesterday.
He said that he had requested another meeting with doctors of the hospital, which should have occurred yesterday but this did not materialise due to the lack of communication.
The meeting is expected to be held at 08:30 hours today. “I need to get some answers…I need the truth from these people…because I don’t think the doctors were truthful with me,” added Rodney.
The man said that even Post Mortem examinations conducted on his wife and dead daughter yesterday did not bring any comfort. The Cuban pathologist revealed that the examinations were inconclusive.
Rodney said that he was told that samples were taken from the two for further examination. “I don’t know who will examine the samples or where exactly they are taking the samples but the doctor said that it will take about 10 days before they can say anything more.”
Rodney said that he has already made funeral arrangements for his wife of six years and daughter to be buried in the same casket on Monday, one day before he celebrates his 30th birthday.
“I can’t even have a happy birthday this year,” said Rodney. “How so many lives could be lost in this day and age when you have facilities in place?
The Government keep saying that facilities are there but they have to get the trained people with good attitude toward their work to deal with patients,” the man added.
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