By Devina Samaroo
What was supposed to be a momentous occasion for a 16-year-old girl ended in tragedy on Saturday last when doctors refused to save the babies she had just delivered.
Twin boys, born at about seven months old, died at the West Demerara Hospital, about an hour after delivery.
Preya Eshwar of Parika, East Bank Essequibo (EBE) is alleging negligence and is accusing the doctors of being inhumane.
“They did not do anything. They left my babies to die,” she told News Room Tuesday.
Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Public Health Terrence Esseboom in 2017 had explained that resuscitation attempts are not offered to non-viable fetuses and in Guyana, this is considered to be anything below 28 weeks.
It should be noted that the twins were just two days away from being at 28 weeks.
The young mother explained that just last month, she did an ultrasound and was told that her babies were healthy.
On the morning of November 10, 2018, she started to experience some pains and her husband and mother took her to the Leonora Cottage Hospital, West Coast Demerara (WCD).
The doctors there informed her that she had an infection and referred her to the West Demerara Hospital at Vreed-en-Hoop, where waited for more than an hour before being admitted to the maternity ward.
Preya explained that her Uncle assumed the role of a porter to push her around in a wheelchair as they moved back and forth between departments at the health institution.
As soon as she was admitted, her first baby came out, crying. She alleged that the doctors placed the baby on her tummy and then started chatting among themselves instead of tending to the second child, who fell into the bedpan.
According to the young mother, the doctors then placed the babies on a thin blanket and left them exposed.
“The room was cold and I saw my babies shivering … they didn’t ask we for a blanket, nothing, they just left them just suh,” she lamented.
Preya said she begged the doctors to put her babies in an incubator but they refused. About an hour later, they informed the teenager that her babies died.
The family was told that the babies had complications with their lungs and would not have lived for more than five days.
But Preya’s grandmother, Nisha Dean contended that the doctors should have given the newborns a fighting chance.
“They’re not God! They’re not God to know that these babies can’t live. At least they could have tried, we would have been satisfied with that,” she said.
The grandmother is contending that the twin boys were just two days short from being considered 28 weeks old.
There was a similar situation just last year at the same health institution when 19-year-old Vishwanie Persaud lost her 25 weeks old baby after doctors refused to put the newborn in an incubator.
Preya and her family are demanding justice and are advising expecting mothers to be cautious when seeking any kind of medical attention at the West Demerara Hospital.
“Is better you save your money and go private,” the grandmother stated.
The family believes even if medically, the doctors predicted that the babies could not have lived, they needed to be more sensitive to the family, especially the mother.
“I wish they cudda try with them to the last. At least I could say they tried with my babies to the last,” Preya expressed.
The young mother buried her babies yesterday and in all her life, she says that was the hardest thing she ever had to do.
