Teen blames GPHC for post-delivery infection

….says medical gauze left inside womb

By Yanella Dalrymple

The Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) is being accused of negligence after a young mother discovered that a piece of gauze was left inside her womb after she delivered her first child in October 2017.
“Pretty” (alias given), gave birth on October 13, 2017, but remained in pain after she was discharged from the hospital on October 15.
The 18-year-old girl, who was allegedly raped, became concerned after a strange odour began emanating from the young woman’s vaginal area.
“After I came out of the hospital, I told my mother I was feeling like if clot blood was left inside of me, I couldn’t sit, I couldn’t even walk properly and I started smelling similar to my grandmother who died with cancer. My family was telling me to sit over hot water and all these things but it was after I went back to the hospital two weeks after, then they realised it was the gauze that was left inside of me,” the young mother related.
In an effort to assist the young woman, her family took her to a pharmacist after suggesting that she may have contracted an infection, after which she was provided with antibiotics for treatment.
However, despite using the antibiotics for several days, her pains persisted and she began to feel her vagina swelling.
“I was feeling really miserable, in a lot of pain and passing clots all the time,” she told Guyana Times.
It appears that the midwife who delivered the woman’s son left gauze in the young woman’s vagina.
The young mother suffered a “tear” during labour and received several stitches to repair the perineum (the area between the vagina and rectum). However, the gauze, which had been used to stem her bleeding, was apparently sutured inside the woman.
According to the young woman, the treatment that was meted out to her by the midwife (name given) at the hospital was atrocious.
She explained how it was something she would never want to experience again in her lifetime.
“After I began feeling labour pains, I called for the midwife who told me to open my foot and start pushing but I told her I was getting the urge to push and she started saying yall lil girl does want tek big things and when is time to push out the baby yall closing yall foot.”
She told Guyana Times that the doctor who removed the gauze that was left inside her body told her family that it was not long before the wound would’ve become septic and killed her.
The family was incensed at the hospital’s negligence, which has marred what should have been a happy time. “At first I didn’t make a big issue out of it because I know they would cover it up but I’m being open about it because the other person it happens to may not be as lucky as me to be alive,” she said.
More so, she is calling on the relevant authorities to do more training at the hospitals so that cases like these can be decreased.
The woman filed a report with the hospital’s authorities last year but has not received an update on the outcome of their probe.