GPHC launches investigation into death of Mahaica woman, unborn child

– autopsy proves mother died from uterine rupture

The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) has launched an investigation into the sudden death of a 39-year-old mother of five, Navita Maraj of Helena Mahaica, East Coast Berbice (ECD), and her unborn child.
Maraj passed away while in labour at Georgetown Public Hospital on Saturday. It was reported that the pregnant woman was under observation at the medical facility two days prior to her death.
She was reportedly supposed to have given birth via caesarean section, and two days before her due date while attending the clinic at GPHC, she was told that she would not return home but would be admitted to the hospital where she would remain under observation until her time of delivery.
At the time, the woman’s family said she was not experiencing any labour pains. However, later that day, Maraj took a turn for the worse and was given Oxytocin tablets to induce labour.

The following day, the family said they received a call from GPHC, informing them that they should go down to the hospital urgently. When they arrived, they claimed that they were told that the woman and her child had passed away.
According to the woman’s family, after learning of her death, they kept receiving conflicting information from the hospital about her demise. They claimed that even the post-mortem examination did not reflect what the GPHC team had told the family.
When contacted on Tuesday, GPHC Public Relations Officer Chelauna Providence related that an investigation has been launched into the incident and it was expected to be completed at the end of the week. However, so far, the post-mortem examination revealed that the woman died from a uterine rupture (spontaneous tearing of the uterus that may result in the foetus being expelled into the peritoneal cavity).
“We are still investigating that matter ,and we haven’t concluded that investigation as yet… we have been getting a lot of inquiries about this case, so definitely the investigation should be completed before the week is out,” she explained.
While the investigation into this case is still ongoing, the hospital has concluded an investigation into the death of Reshana Dindayal and her newborn baby who died at the GPHC last Wednesday after she allegedly fell and hit her head while she was heading to the washroom.
Dindayal, who was expecting her third child, was reportedly taken to the hospital on Wednesday morning after she began to experience labour pains.
The woman’s family claimed that after arriving at the hospital, she was admitted and was told that she was in stable condition.
Dindayal’s relatives were subsequently informed that after they left the hospital, she was heading to the washroom unattended when she fell and hit her head, and became unconscious.
A Caesarean Section was then performed on her, but shortly after, she and her baby girl died.
The family claimed that a post-mortem examination, which was performed on the body of the woman last Friday, failed to determine the cause of death.
Meanwhile, the hospital’s officials said that based on their investigation, the woman fell because she suffered cardiac arrest.
“Our preliminary findings found that the patient had very poor prenatal, she neglected to go to the prenatal clinic. We’ve recorded two prenatal clinic visits up until her admission. We also found that she was using harmful substances throughout the pregnancy which would have contributed to her poor state of health.
“In addition to that, the family was claiming that the patient went to the washroom and fell, when in fact the patient had a cardiac arrest while she was at the hospital, which would have resulted in her falling”.
“It is not a case where she slipped and fell, but she suffered a cardiac arrest…,” the hospital claimed.