Some
of the grieving family members
“She playing tricks. She only behaving so when she see
y’all,” were the alleged comments made by a midwife of the
West Demerara Regional Hospital whose responsibility it was to
attend to a pregnant patient some hours before she died.
Post
mortem examination performed
Salima Ram, 32, of 19 Vive-La-Force, West Bank Demerara, was
pronounced dead by doctors on Tuesday after she collapsed in
the maternity ward of the hospital.
Reports are that the woman, overwhelmed with pain, was
attempting to find nurses manning the ward to inform them that
her baby was ready to be delivered. She collapsed before
reaching them.
This newspaper understands that although it was quite a task
for the woman to get medical attention, despite her many cries
of intense pain, she received medical help in abundance after
she collapsed; help that came a little too late, according to
members of her family.
Ram, according to her sister, Roxanne Alli, was admitted to
the hospital some time after 12:00 hours Monday with pains
that she described as “severe labour pains.” During the
woman’s stay at the hospital, Ram was in constant pain and
was even passing blood, her sister said. However, she noted
that nurses advised that Ram was not ready to be delivered.
It was during the midday visiting hour the following day that
Chanwattie Ram, the dead woman’s mother, observed that
Ram’s state had worsened.
“We see she was in great pain and they was not doing
anything to help she. So we go and ask a doctor…they were
calling him Dr Williams— if he can give we she fuh carry
home. He and the other nurses start saying that they can’t
send she out because they know we want tek she to another
hospital,” Alli said
According to the sister, she and her mother were informed that
should the woman be taken out of the hospital and something
goes wrong they (hospital staff) should not be held
responsible. Nonetheless, the pregnant woman’s family were
denied a discharge request.
“The nurse tell we that she (Ram) gon deliver at the right
time and dat we just got to wait,” a distraught Alli
lamented.
Taking some solace in the fact that Ram had three previous
successful deliveries, Alli said that she and her mother
decided to leave when urged by nurses. But Ram was in such
terrible pain, Alli recounted.
“When we leaving she just start crying and beg for somebody
to stay with she. I come out and I tell mommy to stay with
she. She just hold on pun mommy and cry…She was saying,
‘Ow mommy, stay with me nah’.”
According to Alli her sister was in such pain that as she
clung to her mother she was bent double due to the unbearable
pain. The woman said that it was a few minutes after leaving
the ward that her mother followed claiming that the nurses
told her that she couldn’t stay.
Dead: Salima Ram
It was shortly after they left, Alli said, that they were
later informed that Ram developed a bout of hysteria which was
characterised by her screaming for help and crying out in
pain. Alli said that during the 16:00 hours visiting time she
and her mother were told that Ram suffered incredibility hours
before her death but yet no medical assistance was
forthcoming. “We hear that even in the pain she try to walk
and go tell them that the baby coming…We didn’t know and
we been just outside this whole time waiting for the afternoon
visiting time.”
The woman said that when she and her mother blazed into the
ward they were told that Ram was at the back. They however,
were not informed that she was already dead. “I asked the
nurses about Salima’s condition and them nah tell me
nothing. They said to sit down and wait. After about 15
minutes later I see another doctor named Dr Ravi come out and
pass we and he nah say nothing.”
When he passed back I ask he how is Salima’s condition and
he said hold on. He passed about three more times and he still
nah say nothing. So I ask he again when he pass back.”
Eventually, Alli related that Dr Ravi Persaud, Medical
Superintendent of the hospital, invited herself and mother
into a room where he informed them of Ram’s behaviour after
they left earlier that day.
She said too that the doctor explained that Ram was only 37
weeks pregnant but should have in fact been 40 weeks. But even
as he divulged the information about the pregnancy, Alli said
that nothing was shared about the state of Ram and her baby.
“He talk and talk and I ain’t hearing nothing bout the
baby nor she so I asked he what is them condition and he still
nah answer.”
Dr Persaud, she said, subsequently related that Ram had no
heart beat when she was examined some time after 13:00 hours
on Tuesday. Neither the mother nor child had survived.
Chanwattie Ram is of the belief that had closer attention been
paid to her daughter she could have still been alive. She said
that at least efforts could have been made to save either her
daughter or grandchild if saving both was not possible.
The woman disclosed that she had informed the midwife on duty
that her daughter was hypertensive. According to her the
midwife had even dismissed her daughter’s cries of pain as
“playing tricks.”
Chanwattie Ram said that the midwife insisted that it was only
when family members were around that Ram had a less than
acceptable behaviour.
The distraught mother even recounted how her daughter’s
request to visit the washroom to defecate was ruled out as
‘playing tricks’ by the midwife.
“They didn’t render any assistance to her. They were not
caring enough. If they were just little bit caring my daughter
could still be alive,” the heart-broken woman related. The
woman said that she is hoping that the relevant authorities
would look into the matter so that justice could be served.
Medical Superintendent, Dr Persaud, in an invited comment
yesterday said that a post mortem has been planned for today
to determine the cause of Ram’s death. According to him an
investigation into the death commenced since Tuesday and will
be continued with even more clarity when the result of the
post mortem is known.
He declined to comment further on the matter.
It was just last Sunday that another maternal death was
recorded at the Linden Hospital Complex. That death was
attributed to poor medical response and a non-functioning
operating theatre at the spanking new hospital.
Reports are that Tricia Winth, a 35-year-old mother of three,
and her unborn baby died at the recently commissioned medical
facility shortly before 14:00 hours on Sunday, six hours after
she was admitted for the delivery.
Her husband, Eusibo Winth, told this newspaper that his wife
went to the hospital around 07:30 hours the same day in severe
pain. According to the man, his wife who was hypertensive,
could hardly walk and was suffering spells of headache when
she arrived at the hospital. Upon arrival there, she was
examined by nurses who reportedly told her that she was not
ready to deliver after examining her. This was despite the
woman producing evidence of a complicated pregnancy, evidence
obtained from an ultrasound performed on her on Christmas Eve
Day.
Eusibo Winth related that while in hospital, his wife’s
blood pressure kept fluctuating and nobody took the time to
summon a doctor. The doctor was eventually summoned some four
hours later, but by that time, Tricia Winth began suffering
from seizures.
This newspaper was told that the doctor who turned up informed
that although he was not officially on call, he would have
made himself available if he was contacted earlier. By
then a normal delivery was ruled out even as medical personnel
battled to control the woman’s blood pressure.
It was also too late to transfer the woman to the Georgetown
Public Hospital. To compound matters the operating theatre at
the billion-dollar hospital was inoperable, putting an end to
any plans to perform Caesarian section to deliver the baby.
In the end Tricia Winth perished with her baby inside her. An
investigation into that death has also since ensued.
Thursday, December 31, 2009