The death of a premature baby at the Georgetown Public Hospital on Monday has left a young mother devastated. She is particularly upset at the care the infant received hours before he died and wants an investigation into his death.
Melinda Jordan, who gave birth to a son, Jemiah Burgess, on October 31, when she was six months and one week (25 weeks) pregnant, said doctors gave up on her son initially but later called him a “fighter”.
Jordan said she was admitted to hospital on October 28 and gave birth three days later.
After the first week, she said, doctors told her the baby was doing well and that she would be able to take him home for Christmas. Instead of a celebration this season, she said, the family has a funeral. She said she believes Jemiah died because a nurse fed him incorrectly. Jemiah is to be laid to rest in another few days.
Jordan told Stabroek News on Wednesday that the hospital never told her what the cause of death was, or even explained what happened to her son. She said she requested a post-mortem examination but was informed by hospital staff that one could not be performed on a child so young.
Nevertheless, she said, she believes her baby’s death was the result of negligence and is calling on hospital authorities to conduct an investigation into the case.
Contacted, Director of Medical Services Dr Madan Rambarran said yesterday that Jordan’s baby was “high risk” given that he was born underdeveloped. He said such a baby could be defined as “an abortion”, adding that the infant’s birth weight was only 800 grammes.
The low birth weight and the underdeveloped organs in addition to numerous other problems the infant faced resulted in his death, Rambarran surmised. He said the infant’s weak reflexes were among the problems he faced and pointed out that in such a case the baby could have easily choked on his own saliva.
“There is no evidence to support the mother’s claims about the child being fed incorrectly resulting in his death,” Rambarran stated. We are satisfied with the level of care the infant received since his birth because hospital staff really worked with him.”
Rambarran said the hospital would have taken the position not to perform an autopsy on the baby because the examination is not likely to provide a better understanding of what happened to the baby.
He added that they concluded the cause of death as the immaturity of all the infant’s systems.
When asked why medical personnel would have led the woman to believe she could take her child home by Christmas if the chances of his survival were so slim, Rambarran said the doctors most likely wanted to keep her hope alive, as opposed to saying painful things to her.
Recounting details of what happened after she gave birth, Jordan said the doctors had told her frankly that Jemiah had a 50/50 chance of survival and gave him one week to live.
After he survived the week and continued to make progress, the doctors started calling Jemiah, “miracle baby”, the mother recounted.
When she started using his tongue, it was a big deal, Jordan pointed out because he was being fed through a tube inserted in his nose. She said the promise that Jemiah would be home for Christmas seemed more believable every day. Then she got the tragic news on Monday about his death.
The woman said previously, whenever there was a problem, the doctor had been very forthright with her and would tell her the truth. “The day my son died no one said Melinda your baby might not make it through the day or Melinda he is not doing so well. He was okay and everything was fine then suddenly he is dead. They messed up and people out there need to know,” she said.
When Jordan visited the hospital again on Wednesday to enquire about the post-mortem, she also asked questions about her baby’s death. She said most of the staff ignored her but a doctor expressed shock that he had died, stating that the child had been in good health.
The doctor also opined that the child might have choked on his vomit in addition to the feed entering his lungs resulting in his death. “I am not just sad and upset about my baby, I am thinking about other women who go there to give birth. The hospital needs to examine the practices of the nursing staff with respect to newborn babies and make the necessary changes because I witnessed a lot of things that worried me while I was there,” Jordan stated.
According to the woman, two days before Jemiah’s death, a decision was taken to feed him orally.
She said the doctor felt confident that the baby was ready for the next step since he had started using his tongue. His feeds were to start out very small and strict rules were to be followed with respect to how he was to be fed.
The first day, all was well. But then, she said, a nurse who had previously breached protocol when caring for the baby fed him on Monday and the infant subsequently vomited the breast milk that was fed to him.
Jordan said her baby was not burped and shortly after the feed, he started vomiting unknown to the nurse and other nursing staff, who, she said, were usually deep in conversation for many hours of the day. When the nurses finally noticed the infant was throwing up the feed they rushed to his assistance but it was too late.
Jordan said the nurse in question failed to follow the doctor’s orders. She said she was present and watched as the nurse tilted his head back and fed him the breast milk. She said this was incorrect, since the milk should have been dropped into the baby’s mouth and not down his throat as the nurse did.
Jordan has a four-year-old who was excited about being the older sibling and had been waiting to see the baby. Additionally, she said the rest of the family and friends had been all waiting for Jemiah to go home.
She said the news of the baby’s death was such a heavy blow that she initially left the hospital asking questions. Jordan said even now, she is still in shock.
Earlier this year, baby Carolina, who was born at 26 weeks, also at the public hospital, and weighed 940 grammes, was also given up by doctors. In the weeks that followed her birth, baby Carolina lost weight as she developed many complications.
She was not eating and had severe respiratory distress, anaemia, which resulted in her having numerous blood transfusions, and jaundice. She also developed a resistance to some of the drugs given to her. Despite all of this and the fact that her mother, Yvette Conyers was told several times that her baby would die, baby Carolina surprised all and survived.
Carolina was also fed through a tube so she could gain strength and there were times when she would just stop breathing and the nurses had to revive her.
At a press conference in May, Conyers with tears in her eyes, said, “I want to thank God. Dr Bowman sometimes used to say negative things but I said no, my child is going to live. I thank God that I have my child here to go home with me today.”
Baby Carolina spent three months in hospital before being discharged.
