A young couple is calling for justice following the death of their child on Thursday, March 30, 2017, at the West Demerara Regional Hospital.
The baby was born prematurely to 19-year-old Vishwanie Persaud and her 21-year-old husband, Salim Eshack, and after being neglected by staff at the hospital, the baby died.
Photos and videos of the 24-week-old child, along with the mother and relatives lamenting the treatment received at the health facility were circulated on social media.
During an interview with News Room on Monday, April 03, 2017, Persaud who resides with her family at the Crane Housing Scheme, West Coast Demerara (WCD), related that she visited the hospital after experiencing belly pains.
“When I go…they send me to do a urine test, they tell me ah have to wait two hours after, end up, ah wait. Then they carry me in the room, and they examine me and tell me they see the baby coming…ah deliver the baby. When ah do deliver the baby, the after-birth wasn’t out as yet, and they tell me the baby is alive, is a girl and they gonna discharge she in the bin, and ah tell them No!, that ah want ma baby…they say that they don’t accept 24 weeks in the country,” the teen related.
She gave the name of the doctor who delivered her baby as Dr. Ravi before she was handed over to a female doctor.
Persaud added that “after I tell them I want the baby, they put she in a paper, the wrap she up and they left she in a bed pan. After they take out the after birth from me, they put on a bag saline from me, and that was it, I never see back Dr. Ravi, nobody. All they say to me before they left was ‘why the baby come was because ah had an infection in the after birth’.” She disclosed that she was aware of the infection and was given Amoxicillin to use by the clinic which she visited on Wednesday, March 29, 2017.
Teary eyed Persaud, who is also the mother of a one-year-old boy, said she requested that the baby be placed in an incubator, “because she is alive, because she moving, she crying, she doing everything.” However, she was told that “the hospital don’t have incubator.”
Desperately trying to save the life of her child, the 19-year-old asked to be transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital, but her request was again denied.
Instead, another doctor reportedly told the family that if they can find a private hospital which can accept them, she will provide an ambulance to transport them.
Vishwanie noted that she remained there for most of the day until a relative came in and began protesting the action of the hospital’s staff and the condition of the baby.
She said that it was then that medical practitioners began looking at the child.
“I come home 3 ‘O’ clock the morning, we go back about 6:30, when we go back, there was the baby still alive, we clean she everything because she mess, she urine, she do everything, when we clean she, we deh talking about how this baby survive and them ain’t doing nothing. End up, a man come from behind we, and he turn up the oxygen. I went and tell one of the doctors and she seh ‘she aint know who coming and turn up the oxygen, that nobody doh has to turn it up so high. End up we left and we come out…by the time me and me husband fo go in back, they turn it up again, you seeing the smoke how it coming through the oxygen pon she nose. When we go, all the doctor seh to we is she don’t know who turn it up and there was the last of the baby,” the distraught mother said.
The young couple believes that disciplinary action, as well as criminal charges, should be instituted against several persons at the West Demerara Regional Hospital.
“When the baby dead now, we go outside, we go in back. By the time we go in back, them wrap she up in a paper and them telling me husband how they throwing she in the mortuary…ma husband tell she we want the baby fo go home. Them put she in the bed pan, and that was it, them tell we how we can have she.” Additionally, the hospital did not provide any document to go with the release of the baby as she was told by a staff at the hospital that “they say they ain’t giving we no paper because ‘the baby ain’t accept in the world so they can’t write no paper and give we’”
The mother is questioning why the doctor did not try to save her daughter
Another relative who was with the young mother at intervals during her stay at the hospital pointed out that “all we are asking for is a little justice because this is a baby born with life and she wasn’t given a chance.”
The relatives are also calling on the relevant agencies to get involved and bring deal with those found culpable.
Concerning claims by the hospital that the baby’s birth was termed as premature, the mother is denying that she did anything outside of the doctor’s orders that could have brought harm to her unborn child.
Intense and repeated attempts were made by the News Room to secure an official comment from the management of the West Demerara Regional Hospital. However, those were futile.
News Room made contact with the Regional Health Officer who informed that an investigation is underway.
