GPHC doctor pronounces premature twins dead

…relative finds living baby on way to morgue
…hospital asks family to return documents declaring babies deaths

By Rupa Seenarine

An Enmore, East Coast Demerara (ECD) family was sent into a state of shock on Thursday, when their twins, delivered at the Georgetown Public Hospital, were listed as stillborn by medical professionals who failed to recognise that the child was alive.
Guyana Times was told that the twins were born to Bhanwattie Budram of Hope West, Enmore, on Thursday at about 11:00h and one of the babies had died. However, both children were wrapped to be taken to the mortuary when the shuddering discovery was made by their grandmother that one of them was alive.
The grandmother, Chandrouti Etwaroo, told Guyana Times on Saturday that she waited for almost four hours afte

r the delivery to enter the room and found out that one of the girls was breathing. According to the woman, her daughter was six months, two weeks pregnant at the time of the delivery.
“She give birth to two babies on Friday at around 11:00h and then the nurse came out and told me that she was okay but the babies is not okay. I waiting to see her till 03:00h and then they tell me that the babies dead. I went in to see them and when I open the bag and touch them, the baby start moving and I tell the nurse,” said Sahadeo.
She claimed that the nurses walked away when she informed them that one of the babies was alive. Etwaroo said she pleaded with the nurses to equip the infant with an oxygen supply and place her in an incubator. She said that the child was left there until the nurses changed shift. It was the nurses from the other shift that took heed to the woman’s pleas and placed the baby in an incubator.
“When she spring up and start to breathe, I tell the nurse right away to give her some oxygen and get her to an incubator but she just come and look at the baby and then walk out,” the aggrieved woman related.
Budram and the child remained at the hospital and on Saturday morning at about 04:00h, relatives received a call, informing that the second child had died.
“We left the hospital at 12:15h and the baby was alive and everything was good. This morning (Saturday) they call us and said that the baby die.”
This publication was told by the family that documents provided by the hospital on Thursday stated that both babies were stillborn.
The medical facility then provided subsequent documents for the second death on Friday, while requesting that the first set of documents be returned to the hospital.
They are contending that the medical staffers showed negligence with the delivery of the children and failed to perform their duties. Adding to that, if the child was placed in an incubator soon after birth, she might have survived.
Calls by this publication to the hospital for some clarity on the matter went unanswered.
This incident comes on the heels of GPHC being under scrutiny after three children died at the facility while undergoing chemotherapy treatment earlier this year.
The first child who died was 7-year-old Curwayne Edwards on January 14, followed by three-year-old Roshini Seegobin of Enmore, ECD, on January 18.
The third child, six-year-old Sharezer Mendonca of Queenstown, Essequibo Coast, died on January 24. Mendonca’s family was sent into further despair after her body was given to the wrong family for burial in what was alleged to have been an attempt to cover up her true cause of death.
After investigations were completed, GPHC stated that instead of intrathecal administration of the drug vincristine, doctors administered it intravenously. It was this that led to the adverse reactions of those three children and ultimately their deaths.
Meanwhile, CEO of the GPHC, Brigadier George Lewis has noted that the medical staff involved in these incidents were sent on administrative leave on January 29.