A 34-YEAR-OLD woman who had a stillbirth in the casualty department of the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH) on Monday has accused staff of negligence, and plans to take legal action.
The grieving woman said her dead baby girl remained at her side for about nine hours before staff members took the body to the mortuary.
"It is recklessness for a mother to be with her dead child for so many hours. From Monday night, when I was warded, to yesterday (Thursday), not a doctor came to find out how I was doing. It is ridiculous," she said.
The woman, who has three children, asked to remain unnamed.
She recalled that from 8.30 pm on Monday to 5 am the next day, the dead baby was at her side, wrapped in a cloth. The due date for the unnamed baby's birth was March 3.
The woman said she began having abdominal pains and the right side of her body was hurting. She went to the hospital around 4.30 pm on Monday and was taken into a tent outside the casualty department where covid19 tests were being done.
A staffer later asked her for a urine sample. She went to the washroom and felt the baby coming out at around 8 pm. She called the staff member, who alerted others.
The woman said the staffer took her to "a corner" in the casualty department, where she delivered the stillborn baby.
"They were on the phone asking someone what to do, what to wrap the child in. They need to buck up on their work. They say they could not do much at that age (six months of pregnancy).
"They wrapped the baby in a cloth and put the body next to me," she said. "They later took us to the tent. Around 11.30 pm, workers wheeled me to the ward. All this time, the body was with me.
"I feel she would have survived if proper procedure was in place." The mother was discharged from the hospital on Thursday.
Contacted for comment, an official from the South-West Regional Health Authority confirmed it had received "an official complaint."
"As such, while the authority investigates the complaint to unearth the related facts, we will continue to liaise with and update the client on the information related to the matter."
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