Woman, unborn child die at GPHC

Oct 31, 2022 News

…husband wants answers following conflicting reports from hospital

Kaieteur News – Family members of a 39-year-old mother of five are left to mourn her death after she passed away while in labour at Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) on Saturday morning.

Navita Maraj of Helena Mahaica, West Coast Berbice, was heavily pregnant and reportedly under observation at GPHC, two days before her death. Her common-law husband, Phillip James, 46, told Kaieteur News along with his wife, their baby girl; his only child also died. The man became suspicious after receiving conflicting information about his wife’s demise and is now seeking answers as to what really transpired.

Deceased: Navita Maraj

He hopes that an investigation will be launched and the truth will be uncovered. James told Kaieteur News that prior to Maraj’s hospitalisation, they had agreed that she would give birth via caesarean section. However, two days before her due date, the man said his wife attended the clinic at GPHC and she was told that she would not return home but be admitted to the hospital where she would remain under observation until her time of delivery.

James related that “Navita wanted to come home and go back to the hospital, she actually begged them to go home and come back because of her two small daughters a seven-year-old and a five-year-old at home with her sister, she wanted to make sure they were okay but the clinic referred her to be admitted to the hospital.”

The distraught husband claimed too that the last time, he spoke to his wife, she was not experiencing any labour pains. “She was not experiencing any pain when they told her she had been admitted. The last time I went to see her was Friday morning and midday, she said she had no pain,” the man related. James said later that day, things took a turn for the worse as his wife explained to him that the doctors had given her Oxytocin tablets to induce labour. “She tell me babe don’t call me too steady, the doctor inserted the tablet to induce labour so I gonna relax. She talked to her sister and told her sister the same thing,” he said.

The man said that he received a call around 01:30hrs on Saturday morning from GPHC. He was told that he needed to go down to the hospital urgently. “When I reach, they put me to sit down and tell me that they sorry that my baby mother passed away and also the baby passed away,” James an operator at John Fernandes said. The man said that not only did the news shock him but he became suspicious as to what really caused the mother and child to die. James explained: “The doctors called us in a private room and told us one thing, then another doctor that we spoke to told us something totally different that make us believe that something went wrong with how they managed her case…” He continued, “for instance, we agreed three months ago that she would give birth via C-section but the hospital staff now claiming that she signed up for it but then she changed her mind and cancel it at the last minute when we ask for the records to show, they said that we can’t have it.”

Added to this, the grieving husband told this publication that the cause of death recorded following the post-mortem did not reflect what the GPHC team told the family. James explained, “the doctors at GPHC said that she died of a uterine rupture but the death paper said she had multiple organ failure. At this point, we just want the truth because Navita was the breadwinner for her family, a hardworking mother who left five children behind, and her youngest two are asking for their mother. They now have to live with their aunt.” The man is now seeking assistance from the health authorities to look into the matter to uncover the truth. He told this newspaper that he also hopes to get some kind of assistance for the two little girls who lost their mother.

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