Mom of three dies while giving birth

RELATIVES of a 27-year-old Rio Claro woman intend to sue the Ministry of Health, following the woman’s death while she was giving birth in the delivery room of the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH) on Monday morning. Patricia Montrichard, a mother of three, of Grant Street, Rio Claro, was three weeks overdue when she went to the SFGH to deliver her baby. Although Montrichard died while giving birth, her newborn baby girl was delivered alive and doctors have given the child a 40-60 percent chance at survival. The newborn girl weighed in at nine and a half pounds and is said to be having difficulty breathing. She remains in an incubator at the Maternity Section of the SFGH where doctors and nurses are constantly monitoring her vital signs. According to Montrichard’s mother Priscilla Campbell, 65, Montrichard was in good health and suffered no major complications during the pregnancy. The woman told Newsday she wanted to name her granddaughter Patricia, in memory of her dead daughter. “Everytime I watch that child, I will think of Patricia. It is only natural that I name the baby ‘Pat’,” Campbell said.

Last Thursday, Montrichard went to the Rio Claro Health Centre and was given the relevant documents to go to the SFGH to deliver her child by Caesarian section. According to the grieving woman, her daughter was turned away by nurses at the SFGH and told to return on Sunday. Montrichard returned to the SFGH on Sunday and that night, she telephoned home to say that “everything was fine”. However, unknown to the family, that was the last time they would speak to Montrichard. At 9 pm on Monday, Montrichard’s relatives, who were all expecting good news, were visited by the police who broke the heart-wrenching news that she had died while giving birth to her child. Shocked relatives were told that Montrichard had died around 11.45 am. “I feeling real sad right now....that was my only daughter and to me, it is negligence on the part of the hospital which led to my daughter losing her life,” cried a grieving Campbell.

Relatives told Newsday when they visited the SFGH the following morning, patients on the Maternity Ward told them Montrichard went to the bathroom and fell, hitting her head. It was only then that Montrichard was wheeled into the delivery room. Also speaking to Newsday yesterday was Louis Castillo — the father of Montrichard’s other two children. A shocked Castillo, who said he is the president of the Rio Claro Unemployed Persons Association, said, “Patricia was a strong woman...she never had problems delivering my children. In fact, she delivered them without a murmur.” Montrichard’s relatives told Newsday, they intend to take up the issue of a lawsuit for negligence along with her (Montrichard’s) common-law husband Cipriano Cova — the newborn baby’s father. Castillo told Newsday he would seek the assistance of Ortoire/Mayaro MP and Works and Transport Minister, Franklyn Khan, in the matter. Relatives also claimed when they saw Montrichard’s body lying in the San Fernando Mortuary, her mouth was filled with blood. They told Newsday that the blood was just one issue for which they are seeking answers. An autopsy is expected to be carried out sometime today on Montrichard’s body at the San Fernando Mortuary. When Newsday made checks with the Communications Department of the South-West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA), under whose jurisdiction the SFGH falls, officials claimed to have no knowledge of the incident.