Following a post which has been circulating on social media of a premature newborn being neglected at the West Demerara Regional Hospital, the doctor attached to the case is now claiming that it was an abortion. However the relatives of the baby are holding out that negligence led to the child’s death.
Over the weekend, several pictures and a video were posted to Facebook, highlighting an incident of a premature baby being left to die on the premise that her organs were too underdeveloped for her to be viable.
The family of the premature newborn, who died at the West Demerara Regional Hospital
The post continued to be broadcast over the Internet, enraging social media users who are in dismay over the then unconfirmed incident.
On Tuesday, Guyana Times made several attempts to clarify the claims by the doctor but this publication was told that the relevant hospital officials to comment on the issue were unavailable.
When this publication visited the West Demerara Regional Hospital on Tuesday, the relevant authorities were not present to put forth a statement on this matter. Other efforts to contact the officials were in vain as they were said to be unavailable. However, the newspaper managed a brief telephone conversation with the doctor present at the delivery, who pointed out that enough care was taken for an abortion, thereby indicating it was a termination of pregnancy rather than a delivery. When asked to clarify his statements, the doctor disconnected the call.
However, this newspaper on Tuesday visited family of the deceased newborn, during which they shared the details of what transpired at the hospital, holding out that it was never a case of an abortion.
The 19-year-old mother, Vishawanie Persaud, indicated that she was made aware of the pregnancy just two weeks prior to the incident. On the day of the incident, she visited the West Demerara Regional Hospital in pain during which the baby was delivered at a gestation of five months, two weeks due to an infection as she was told. Persaud recalled that upon the birth of her baby, she was told the newborn was alive but would not survive given her underdeveloped organs. The mother explained that they were about to discard of her child when she noticed her moving and pleaded for medical care to be administered, which she was denied.
Persaud went on to say that the infant was functioning similarly to a full-term baby, which includes the moving, crying and passing of bodily waste. After requests to be transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital were denied, the medical operators finally agreed to administer oxygen to the newborn. Persaud told this newspaper that it was hours after the baby’s birth that the newborn was hooked up to the oxygen supply and otherwise was still being neglected.
After being advised to leave, the parents returned the following morning to the baby who was still alive. The relatives indicated that the oxygen supply however was continuously being tampered with by a porter, who claimed to be an “all-rounder,” subsequently resulting in the death of the child.
The family told this newspaper that the doctor attached to the case was never seen after the delivery. However, they relayed their encounter with several others doctors; one of whom was heard in a confrontation via the video posted, with the family for tending to the newborn. Another doctor on the other hand, informed the family of a case of the survival of a baby being born around the same stage of development and thus encouraged the parents to have their child transferred to a private medical institution. Unfortunately, the baby succumbed before a transfer was made possible.
“We beg a lot to save that baby… the baby was alive. But the porter who turn up the oxygen, they have to do something to that person because she was alive. She ain die by herself; the oxygen that he turned up made that baby die,” relayed the grieving grandmother, as she pleaded for justice.
The family was already aware of the hospital’s claims of an abortion and presented a clinic card as proof to discredit the theory.
After the post was made public, former Health Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy released a statement calling for an immediate probe into the matter. Even with that, it is still unclear if an investigation has been launched or if Government and medical officials are aware of the incident. Calls to Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence for a comment on the issue went unanswered.
