In a turn of events, a 37-year-old Diego Martin woman is suing the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) for not admitting her daughter to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital’s Neonatal ICU (NICU), claiming this resulted in the infant’s death.
For the past two weeks, the NWRHA has received several pre-action protocol letters from attorneys at Freedom Law Chambers, after it announced that seven babies died between April 4 and 9 of a bacterial infection at the NICU. Parents of over 12 babies have since stepped forward claiming their newborns died after being improperly treated at the NICU.
The NWRHA has only acknowledged the deaths of seven babies, who the authority said died between April 4 to 9. It said all other deaths of neonates, while “tragic”, must be looked at “carefully and separately”.
In a letter sent yesterday, attorneys claimed that their client, Wendy Bravo, delivered her daughter, Lilly, at 26 weeks on February 9. They said the baby was given two hours to live but defied that and lived for two days, feeding, breathing on her own and even defecating.
“Following the birth of her baby, our client was happy as she heard her baby’s cries. She was ecstatic to know that the day was finally here—she was now a mother. “Our client had mere seconds to process these overwhelming emotions when the midwife related to our client said, ‘Yuh child lungs not developed, it go die in two hours’ in a very unapologetic manner,” the legal letter stated.
The attorneys said during those two days, baby Lilly was denied access to the NICU, despite the multiple requests from her mother.
“No doctor, intern or nurse even attempted to examine the baby’s heartbeat or vitals after birth. Rather than making any effort to provide care or sustenance, they effectively abandoned the baby to our client’s care without any medical support or intervention,” it added.
The letter claimed that baby Lilly’s birth was never registered and the cause of death was deemed to be a spontaneous miscarriage, which they denied, since the child was born at 26 weeks and not 20 weeks as it is medically defined.
“Had our client’s baby received proper medical attention and the requisite care, her chances of survival would have been significantly enhanced. This considering the remarkable feat of breathing and displaying signs of activity at just twenty-six (26) weeks gestation. Many infants cannot breathe on their own after delivery and are immediately taken to the NICU facilities for assisted breathing,” the attorneys said.
Baby Lilly died on February 11.