The father of Carol Chuniram, who died at the Diamond Diagnostic Centre (East Demerara Regional Hospital)
Carol Suniram
on Tuesday, during surgery to remove a dead foetus that she was carrying inside her womb for five days, is holding the hospital responsible for her death.
“Which hospital would send home a woman with a dead baby inside her for five days…that is unacceptable. I don’t trust what the doctor is telling us,” Chuniram’s grieving father, Danraj Beharry told Guyana Times on Wednesday.
He remarked that over the weekend his daughter started complaining about pains in her chest and numbness in her feet. “These were all signs that something was wrong, but they did nothing…when she asked if she could go to the Georgetown hospital, the doctor told her they would send her back right here…they are lying,” he lamented.
Chuniram, of Cinema Street, Diamond Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara, had suffered a miscarriage last Friday and was prescribed pills by a doctor at the hospital to pass out the foetus.
On Wednesday, Public Health Minister, Dr George Norton stated that Chuniram, who was a mother of four, had 10 pregnancies. He stated that when she went to the hospital on Friday, the doctor noticed that the foetus was dead and so he ordered medication for her to force a delivery.
Dr Norton stated that she was asked to return to the hospital on Tuesday for surgery. “During the procedure, she had a cardiac arrest…they might have succeeded in resuscitating her once, but she eventually died,” he related.
The Health Minister stated that Chuniram’s death was regrettable. “Our goal is to reduce maternal deaths from last year’s figure. But we are into half of the year…and with an extra death reaching that goal does not appear favourable,” he said, adding that the sector is worried about the September-October period when the maternity wards would be filled.
Only on Monday, the Minister had said Guyana’s maternal mortality rate was declining. Recently, a United Nations report disclosed that Guyana was among five countries in the Region with the highest maternal mortality rate, and among six nations where the incidence had amplified notably between 1990 and 2013.
Chuniram’s death would mark Guyana’s seventh maternal mortality for the year.
