A Berbice woman has now decided to speak out after she lost her baby at the New Amsterdam Public Hospital last month. The woman said that after hearing that President Irfaan Ali had announced that the hospital would be investigated, she decided to share her story so that officials can be aware.
Vanita Bipat, also known as ‘Vanie’, 24, of Williamsburg, Corentyne, yesterday explained that on August 4, she was sent from her health centre to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital to join the high-risk clinic.
The doctor she met there told her to return on August 11 for admission. The woman told Stabroek News that she had done an ultrasound at the Anamayah Memorial Hospital on March 31. However, she did a second ultrasound on June 8 at the Port Mourant Hospital which showed that her due date would be on July 28. Based on that, the doctor explained that she would have had to be admitted on August 11 if she showed no signs of labour before that date.
However, on August 11, the young woman returned to the hospital where she met with another doctor. She said, she explained that the other doctor had told her that it was necessary for her to be admitted and the reasons why he would have made that decision.
However, the doctor then asked her to do an ultrasound after which she was told to return in one week. Bipat said she even noted that the medical personnel at her health centre had told her to ensure that she was admitted before passing 41 weeks. “So I ask her if my baby was okay and she said the baby was okay, but she wasn’t paying much attention”.
Bipat returned to the hospital on August, 16, where she was admitted after being informed that the doctor would have to induce labour. “I was admitted to the ward and till the 17th [August] they took me to the labour room around 6.30 am and till around 8 am they start work.”
She said both doctors she met at the hospital along with two other doctors visited her in the labour room. “The doctor insert half tablet, I don’t know if the tablet melt and break up but the doctor asked for another piece and then he start to check for the baby heart beat and he na find the baby heart beat but he didn’t tell me.”
She recounted being told she would have to have an emergency ultrasound done but that could not be done since the hospital’s ultrasound machine was not working. “At the said time the machine wasn’t working so I couldn’t go. He [the doctor] start shake up my belly and they weren’t telling me nothing,” she recalled.
Bipat then asked a nurse who informed her that they were not finding her baby’s heartbeat. She noted, “He [the doctor] come and touch my shoulder and say everything is okay with the baby and myself.”
Throughout that day she slowly began experiencing labour pain after which “they insert another piece of the tablet and during the night they give me two bags of drip, then the pain come more hot and then next morning 4 am they take me to deliver but they didn’t check to see if I dilate or nothing.”
Meanwhile, Bipat also noted that before she was administered the last piece of tablet and drips, she questioned the doctor whether she could have a ‘C’ section done, “She told me that I can’t get a ‘C’ Section because I wasn’t an emergency case.”
Around 1.45 the next morning, Bipat delivered a baby boy, whom she later named Kartik Kumar Persaud. “They put the baby on me and cut the cord and then took him and I hear them talking that the baby drink a lot of fluids.”
She was subsequently told, that “They rush for oxygen and they said they tried to save baby and the baby couldn’t make it.”
While still in the labour room the young woman was also told, “he pass away from lungs and heart problem.”
Although the hospital had her husband and relatives’ telephone numbers, they never informed them of anything that was transpiring, “They didn’t call my husband or my mother and say that the child pass away, or when I needed an ultrasound they could have call my husband say that he should take me to a private hospital to do it but they didn’t do anything.”
An emotional Bipat continued, “They neglected me from the starting, that’s my main point. If they did admit me and monitor me and my baby died I would a try to accept that maybe he born with lungs and heart problem.”
She added, “Two due date pass for me [so] why they didn’t admit me? That day the doctor just check me and put me to do the ultrasound and I ask if baby was okay she said yes and I tell her that I have to get admit today and that was it, from there I was being neglected.”
Before being discharged from the health facility on August 19, Bipat was asked by the doctor she met with on August 11, whether she or her husband “deals with chemical.” “I told her no and she walk away but we don’t deal with no kind of chemical.”
Furthermore, Bipat said based on her experience it was evident that there is a major communication breakdown between doctors and nurses and doctors and patients at the hospital, “I think they need to sit with mothers and explain everything that is going and then ask if we want normal delivery or ‘C’ section.”
She also alleges favouritism at the health facility. “If the doctor know you then your relatives can go into the labour room because when I was there they said no one can go in but then some people family go [in].”
Bipat was also told that an investigation would be conducted but hasn’t heard anything further. She emphasised that she believes a proper investigation needs to be done at the health institution.
