Newborn left with gaping hole on hand from burn at New Amsterdam Hospital

A newborn baby is left with a hole on his left hand as a result of third-degree burns from a defected infusion line at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the New Amsterdam Public Hospital.

Twenty-three-year-old Trishanna Ally told the News Room that the doctor at first told her that the baby contracted an infection from the needle used to administer antibiotic but three weeks later, she was told that the infusion line disconnected and led to the burns on his hand.

Ally was admitted to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital on August 7.

There, doctors decided to clip the amniotic sac to induce labour but Ally said after close to 24 hours, she was unable to give birth naturally.

She underwent a caesarian section and gave birth to a healthy eight-pound baby boy.

“They took the baby for my husband and he was fine,” Ally told the News Room in a telephone interview on Sunday.

However, having been exposed for 24 hours before she gave birth, Ally said the baby became infected and had to be taken to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

But she is seeking answers after he was returned to her with a hole on left his hand.

“When I went in to see him, I saw one of his hands was bandaged up and the other one, it had a slight reddish spot with a bump on it,” the young mother said.

Upon questioning the nurse, she was told: “he had a reaction to the needle that they [used].”

The doctors issued triple antibiotic ointment to treat the wound and discharged the mother and her baby.

Ally said on August 28, she visited a private clinic after her baby developed a high fever. There, the doctor told her that the bacterial infection is still present in his system and admitted him for treatment. Ally was also told that the hand was burned from a medication.

As such, she revisited the New Amsterdam Public Hospital to find out what medication was responsible for the burn so the baby can be adequately treated.

“I told the doctor [at NA hospital] I am taking him to a private clinic and the doctors want to know what medication caused this [wound] then she (the doctor at NA hospital) said it was a burn caused by the infusion line that they used, how it slipped out and the medication [antibiotics] got out and burn him,” the first time mother told the News Room.

Ally expressed alarm that she was not told this from the inception and efforts to have those responsible dealt with proved futile.

“While he was in there my son had to endure so much pain that my heart couldn’t take to let this matter go under the rug,” she said.

She is calling on the authorities to look into the situation.