Thirty-seven years ago Devon Sam was delivered at what was then known as the Nabaclis Hospital, but today he bemoans the condition of the “upgraded hospital” whose closure last weekend saw him taking on the job of a midwife for a few minutes and delivering a baby.
“Is a lot of things happen at that hospital and is only now it going in the papers because the baby born at my shop,” Sam told the Sunday Stabroek of the Dr CC Nicholson Hospital & Health Centre which is located a short distance from his ‘Top of All Barber Shop’ in Nabaclis, East Coast Demerara.
Sam’s experience as midwife was highlighted in Stabroek News last week after last Saturday night he was forced to deliver the baby boy of 23-year-old Nandy Collins, who had found the gates to the hospital locked. Her partner Otis Barry was frantically looking for a midwife when he stumbled upon Sam who was closing up his shop at the time. The barber, who said he did not see his own two children come into world, described how he was prompted into action when he saw the baby’s head protruding.
Since the publication of the story Sam said he had not been approached by any official of the hospital or the region, but he indicated that he would like to speak to someone in authority. He is on the spot daily not only to see what happens at the hospital but to hear the complaints of many persons who from time to time would stop at his shop.
Even as he spoke to this newspaper a young man in the shop displayed a horrific scar he said was caused by a burn, and that many days it was Sam who helped him when he was not assisted at the hospital.
“Devon coulda mek the papers long now because nuff day is he use to help wrap this burn up and suh when dem nurse gather round talking name and ain’t get no time with me,” the man said.
But even as he spoke a woman from the hospital walked into the shop and said that he was very disrespectful to staff members and she only refused to treat him on the last occasion because of his behaviour.
“I gat to be disrespectful because when I come you all ain’t coming and see me; people in pain and you all standing around talking name,” the man countered.
A quiet Sam later acknowledged that he was forced to assist the man on many occasions because he was in pain at times.
“A lot of time you would see ambulance coming from Berbice and other place speeding in here and with the same speed they speed out back,” Sam said.
He said after the hospital was upgraded a Cuban doctor was on the staff, but since that doctor left one would work between the hours of 8am and 4pm on weekdays, and he asked how a hospital could not have a doctor on call at all times.
As far as he knows Saturday night was the first time a would-be patient visited the hospital and found the doors closed, but he knew of cases where patients were not treated.
And as for him delivering the baby, Sam still views it as a “mystery,” and while it was an “awesome” experience it is one he does not want repeated. Asked how he knew that he should tell the woman to “breathe in and push” and to “lash the baby on he foot to make him cry” Sam revealed that apart from movies he had seen a television show which went through the entire process of a mother giving birth.
“I watch the show and it was step by step they show you what to do, and since the child father panic I had to do something, so I tell the woman elevate she legs and breath and push. On the show they said if the baby don’t cry give it a tap so that is why I give the baby a lil lash on he foot to make he cry,” the man told this newspaper.
And because he could not clip the umbilical cord Sam also told about the frightening experience of riding around the village on a bicycle looking for a nurse or a midwife and he found none.
“I riding and looking and a friend see me and he driving and he an all drive around looking for a midwife but we ain’t find any. Is when we come back we find that girl and she come and ensure that the woman and the baby was alright and then send them to the hospital,” Sam said.
That woman was not a nurse as this newspaper had
previously reported, but is employed as a lab technician. However, Sam said she was in a position to give the woman some initial assistance before sending her off to the hospital where the cord was clipped.
Sam was born and grew up in the village of Nabaclis and he said as a resident he would like to see the hospital improve and really be of service to the community.
While it is not something he would like to do again, Sam revealed that he has become very popular since the story was published, and this was evident by the many “Devon the midwife” calls he got from passers-by as he spoke to this newspaper.
The parents of the baby boy, who have since said that Devon would be featured in his name, are both grateful to the quick-thinking father of two and were high in their praise of Sam.
And while his popularity might have increased, Sam is not shy to boast about being the “main barber between Ann‘s Grove and Melanie.”
Barbering initially was not his chosen profession, and “hair-cutting was just a hobby” for him at one time. If you had met him some years ago he would have been doing upholstery and joinery, but that profession was a “seasonal one as is only Christmas time people want things done,” he explained. He worked at a carpentry business in Plaisance at one time and in the afternoons he would do some barbering.
“I would just like cut one or two hair in the afternoons, but then I start to get more and more customers and I decide to just start doing barbering just with one chair underneath the house,” he said.
But soon after he saved his money and built a shop in front of his home and it has been bright business ever since.
“I am the only barber in the shop and most days I does be busy all the time; I get lots of customers,” Sam proudly said, adding that the shop also doubles as a salon as there is a hairdresser who works out of the shop.
