Woman sues over baby’s death

INDUSTRIAL action by doctors is being blamed for the death of a newborn baby at the San Fernando General Hospital.

Samdaye Harrilal, 35, of Penal, yesterday filed a lawsuit against the South West Regional Health Authority, which operates the SFGH, claiming that the hospital’s administration failed to ensure there was a ward staffed with doctors, one of whom could have attended to her when she was rushed to hospital to deliver her baby. Harrilal claimed in an affidavit that her baby went into distress and when nurses recommended she be placed on drips, there were no doctors present to administer it.  As a result Harrilal’s baby, who was born at seven pounds and five ounces, died.

Harrilal is contending that the hospital acted negligently and ought to have provided doctors on the ward. When the hospital could not provide doctors, Harrilal said, it acted negligently by refusing to transfer her to a private nursing home. The writ was filed by attorney Krishnedath Neebar, instructing attorney Anand Ramlogan. Between March 21 and April 22, 2002, doctors employed with the Ministry of Health, were locked in dispute over terms and conditions of service. On April 22, the very day Harrilal was rushed to the hospital, a release from the SWRHA stated that the hospital was only admitting emergency cases because there was a ten percent shortage of doctors at the San Fernando and Port-of-Spain General Hospitals.

Outlining her ordeal during which nurses performed the role of doctor by giving her an injection of antibiotics, Harrilal said she was nine months pregnant when her amniotic sac ruptured. She said when she was admitted to ward 15, she was made to wait on a bench for one and a half hours. A nurse then recorded with a monitor a “very healthy” heart beat of her baby, she claimed. Harrilal was then escorted to ward 13 where she was told by a nurse that she had to be given an antibiotic injection because her medical records showed she was suffering from a heart condition. But nurses told her only a doctor could administer such an injection. “Around 6:30 pm I began to feel pain and requested that a doctor attend to me,” she stated. However, nurses repeatedly told her that there was no doctor on the ward. “Throughout the night I heard them make several telephone calls to doctors but to no avail,” Harrilal said. 

Eventually, the woman stated, a nurse gave her an antibiotic injection. Harrilal stated that her pains intensified and even by then, 1.01 am, she had not seen a doctor. The woman said she was again hooked up a to a monitor while two nurses and a midwife attended to her. She stated in her affidavit that she heard one of them say: “The baby is in distress.” Harrilal said nurses then hurriedly wheeled her into the labour ward and again hooked her up to a monitor. But on that occasion, Harrilal’s writ stated, the nurses did not detect any heart beat from her baby. Harrilal said nurses placed tubes into her nostrils and administered oxygen. A nurse told her that she required drips but unfortunately there was still no doctor on the ward at the time.

Harrilal said around 1:06 am she gave birth to her baby which nurses placed in an incubator. She stated that a short while after a doctor arrived and she saw him use a suction pump to take out green liquid from the baby’s mouth. The woman said she saw the doctor turning the baby from side to side. The doctor then told her that the baby had died. Harrilal’s attorneys are contending that the hospital failed to staff the hospital with doctors. Alleging negligence, the woman stated that the hospital ought to have transferred her to a private nursing home when it discovered the hospital had no doctors to attend to her. Harrilal is seeking monetary compensation for loss of her baby.