Teacher dies at NA hospital during ‘c-section’; newborn in stable condition

The authorities are investigating the death of 22-year-old Jacinth Muhammed Osborne, a teacher, who died on September 30^th while undergoing a Caesarian Section at the New Amsterdam Public Hospital, East Berbice- Corentyne.

The News Room understands that Osborne was a resident Wairuni, Berbice River Region 10 and according to a statement from the Ministry of Health, she was previously receiving antenatal care at the Calcuni Health Centre in the Berbice River but was later admitted to the New Amsterdam Hospital on September 28, for induction of labour due to late-term pregnancy.

According to the Ministry of Health, the young woman went into cardiac arrest during the surgery. “Despite strenuous efforts, resuscitation failed,” the statement noted.

According to the ministry, the Post Mortem was done and both internal and external investigations have commenced. “The neonate (newborn), however, is presently stable.”

“The Ministry of Health and the Regional Health Authority of Region Six are deeply saddened by this event and express our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.  We remain available to answer any questions the relatives may have regarding the deceased,” the ministry statement concluded.

HOSPITAL STAFF WAS NEGLIGENT – RELATIVES

Osborne’s relatives, however, believe that the staff of the hospital are to be blamed.

The mother, Nathalie Agard Lucas, speaking to the media on Saturday, said the death of her daughter is a huge blow to the family and her passing has now left a gap that can’t be filled.

Lucas said she received a telephone call on September 30 at around 16:00 hrs that her daughter had died even though a nurse had informed her hours before about the death. The grieving mother said her daughter had no prior complications; as a matter of fact, her daughter went to the hospital for an ultrasound.

“They said to her that the baby is very chubby and the only thing that they think they will do is give her a slit close up to the anus so the baby could pass, that was Tuesday afternoon (September 28) when I called her back,” Lucas said.

Lucas added that her daughter was subsequently admitted that day and was told by the medical personnel that they would need to induce labour.

“She said ‘mommy, they said they will induce labour on me tonight’ [but] they do that until Thursday morning…they were just inducing labour on my daughter.

“I stood up here keep calling my daughter; I kept calling her…I asked her if she was okay and she kept saying ‘too much pain mommy, too much pain.’

“She said she ain’t able no more with this pain and I said to her, ‘baby, you have to bear up that is what women have to put up with’,” Lucas said.

According to the mother, Osborne objected when the doctors wanted to continue giving her medication to induce labour and they made her sign a document indicating same. Sometime after, Osborne was prepared to head into the operating theatre to deliver her baby but doctors decided to have a c-section done.

Lucas said while she was waiting at the hospital, a doctor approached her and indicated that he had performed the c-section on her daughter and that “everything was okay.”

According to the distraught mother, the doctor informed her that the baby is healthy but that Osborne’s heart “started racing” when the afterbirth was removed.

“He seh they resuscitated her and everything was normal with her and she was not using anything on her body, she was breathing with her own heart and that everything was okay and that they will have to transfer her to the Georgetown Public Hospital for some ICU care.”

Lucas said she recalled telling the doctor, “I hope you are telling me the truth”, since someone had already told her Osborne died.

“They knew that she died early and they did not have the courage or the audacity to come out and tell me that. They kept lying to me.”

“I need justice for my daughter”

Lucas has since indicated that she was not given the opportunity to see her daughter’s body as yet and that they were given a death certificate by the doctor which stated that Osborne died from anaphylactic shock by anaesthetic.

Lucas said she is questioning the report since no relative was present when the autopsy was done and they were not aware that such was executed. She wants an independent autopsy to be conducted.

“I am asking, if in the right or wrong way I gon have to get justice for my daughter because my daughter is not the only girl that lost her life, or mother dead and leff baby like me – a distressing grandmother with a granddaughter to care for – for the rest of my life.

“I am going to the ministry, I am going to go how far I can go, I must have justice for my child. I must have justice because she wasn’t sick. If they know they could not handle it, all they had to do was call and seh ‘mommy we cannot handle your daughter situation and if you wanna take her somewhere else then take her…’, we wouldn’t have had a problem,” the grieving mother told the News Room.

The woman said her daughter only got married in April and it is her first child.

“You had my daughter three days inducing pain, we are all human. I need justice. My daughter married April, it hasn’t been a year completely and this is the end of my daughter’s life? Because of doctors’ negligence?

“It can’t work. That won’t be digested…I am not taking it like that,” Lucas said while fighting back tears.

Lucas said no official from the Regional Health Authority or the Ministry of Health has reached out to her.

“They are neglectful. She (Osborne) was not worried delivering there, she was excited because it is her first.”