Investigations into death of twins at GPHC incomplete

It has been close to one month since a young mother laid her twin babies to rest, following alleged negligence on the part of workers at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, however, the institution is yet to provide the family with an explanation on what exactly took place on that fateful day.

On Sunday, sister of Bhanwattie Budram of Hope West, Enmore, East Coast Demerara, who is still trying to come to grips with what happened, told Guyana Times that the family is still in shock and contemplating their next move.
A senior source at the hospital reported that the investigation has not yet been completed and findings will be shared with the public when it becomes available.
Back on March 14, the twins were delivered at the Georgetown Public Hospital and were listed as stillborn by medical professionals who failed to recognise that one of the babies was alive.
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, had told Guyana Times that she waited for almost four hours after 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 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 shifts. It was the nurses from the other shift that took heed to the woman’s pleas and placed the baby in an incubator.
This publication was told by the family that documents provided by the hospital stated that both babies were stillborn.
The medical facility then provided subsequent documents for the second death 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.
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, 2019.