Baby in fridge — doctor still in custody

Up to press time, the 60-yearold doctor whose office is in Cocoyea Village remained in police custody. The baby’s mother Cindy Gail Sooknanan, 22, gave birth on July 1, at the home of relatives in Fyzabad. On Monday, officers from the Homicide Investigations Bureau (Region III) and Mon Repos CID, acting on information, executed a search warrant at doctor’s office and found the baby’s body stuffed in the freezer compartment of a refrigerator.

Yesterday, Dr Alexandrov performed an autopsy at the Forensic Science Centre in St James and concluded that the newborn died of natural causes due to complications arising out of a lack of medical care after premature birth. “There were no abnormalities.

The lungs are still covered with a special substance peculiar to immature babies. The substance is not developed properly so on being born, premature babies are immediately placed in an incubator so the surfactant (the substance coating the lungs) can mature. At the age of 28 weeks, there is a 75 percent chance of survival,” Alexandrov said.

Sooknanan, who is unemployed, lives with her father Rajesh Sooknanan, 42, and twoyear- old daughter Chloe at Sewlal Trace in Fyzabad. Her step-uncle Crious Titus, 38, recalled that he thought the baby was being taken to hospital after the birth. Titus who last year delivered his own child based on instructions from EHS personnel, delivered Sooknanan’s child. The newborn’s father Kimraj Joria was present at the time.

“The cord was around his neck and I unwrapped it and cleaned him. I tied the navel string with a ribbon and told her (Sooknanan) to go to the hospital. The baby had hair on his head, all his fingers and toes. He looked healthy.

I sent her to the hospital,” Titus said.

Minutes later, Titus said, the young mother returned home saying she opted to go by a private doctor instead. “Cindy’s mother called to enquire about her newborn grandson and was told the doctor had taken the baby to hospital. All that time, we thought the was still alive,” Titus said.

Public Relations Officer of the TT Medical Association Dr Austin Trinidade said that based on reports, he found it strange a doctor would keep a newborn at his office shortly after the baby’s birth. “I find it is a strange thing.

No doctor keeps a baby unless he has some kind of nursing home or something. But no doctor will keep a baby at his office. I find that is a very very strange report.” Trinidade added that the association itself does not have specific rules in relation to the time frame in which a death must be reported. “There are no specific time frames. However, all human deaths have to be reported, as soon as possible. I cannot say if the doctor in question is a member of the association. I don’t think he is but I do not know all the names of our members,” Trinidade said adding, he did not have all the facts of the matter and would want to be circumspect in his comments.