“If they don’t love the job, then just go home. You need to love the job.”
“My son should not die in vain,” Andy Jones appeals.
“I carried my baby for nine months, thinking that I would carry my baby back home in my hands, but I will go with my hands empty, just because they don’t care,” said the grieving teen mother of Toledo, Cenaida Reymundo, today, as she and her mother-in-law, Laura, were making arrangements to take the baby back home for burial.
“This is not nice what I’m going through. It’s really hard what I am going through. My heart is broken right now. Like when I see the outfit for the baby, it’s really sad – the outfit the baby will have on when they bury him.”
One week after she gave birth to what she thought would have been a bouncing baby boy, Cenaida and her common-law husband, Andy Jones, are preparing to bury their son, who died while on life support at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH) in Belize City, at approximately 9:10 on Tuesday night. The outrageous story should not have ended like this, and the mother told us that the family plans to sue those responsible for the death of their child.
Director of Health Services, Dr. Michael Pitts, told Amandala in an interview today, that he has been leading an investigation into the case since Friday, after the father wrote a complaint to the Government. At a press conference held this afternoon to provide a status report on the swine flu, Pitts told the media that the dead baby’s family is alleging “gross negligence” on the part of hospital staff.
Pitts told Amandala that his initial reaction was one of outrage.
“It is being investigated at all levels,” he said, adding that the investigative team is collecting information from all players, anybody with any part in what has happened.
Pitts also said that the medical documents in Punta Gorda had been frozen over the weekend, while the documents in Belize City and Dangriga were frozen today, after the death of the child.
Cenaida took us back to where the ordeal began last Tuesday, when she was about to deliver her baby, full-term:
“Everything was very good. He was kicking like crazy, ‘cause he was ready to come to this world. But unfortunately, he got sick and everything happened with his brain damage.”
The unnamed baby, weighing about four-and-a-half pounds, according to his mother, passed way exactly a week after she gave birth to him alone, on a bed, right inside the Punta Gorda Town Hospital.
The mother said she delivered her baby with no help. For five minutes, she said, her baby, who had turned blue, made no sound, and when he finally did, it was a faint cry – confirming fears that he was in really bad shape.
“They said that the baby ‘stooled’ inside my belly and got an infection,” the mother also reported.
On Wednesday, the mother added, they were transferred first to the Southern Regional Hospital in Dangriga, and then to Belize City on Sunday, where the baby (who we will call Angel) met his untimely demise.
Cenaida said that a nurse was in her company last night, at the KHMH, when things went haywire, and the life support system signaled that Angel was on the verge of dying. A female doctor who came later said she did not know if the baby would survive – and she was right; he didn’t.
Do you think this could have been avoided? Amandala asked.
“Yes, it could have been avoided, if they had taken care of my child when I was delivering the baby, but no nurses were there then. That’s why my baby died, strangled himself with the umbilical cord and that’s why he died last night, suffered for one week, a miserable life suffering,” Cenaida lamented.
Angel was born in Punta Gorda, and according to the mother, they were sent to Dangriga on the following day, Wednesday:
“He was in an incubator first, with oxygen, needles all over the body,” she added.
“They sent us to Belize City when they realized that the baby was in danger. They said they did not have a ventilator in Dangriga… They knew that the baby was in danger now, brain damaged, so they sent him to this hospital over this side, even though they knew that the baby would die.
“They said they did not have any ventilator. They are hoping that somebody dies so that my baby could get a ventilator. That’s what they told us in Dangriga.
“So my husband said, ‘So we gotta pray now for somebody to die so we get a ventilator?’ They got mad at us. And said, basically, ‘Yah.’”
According to Cenaida, they arrived in Belize City on Sunday:
“They had to use a pump for the baby to breathe…the baby did get a ventilator,” she informed.
Cenaida is at a loss, now, for the words to explain to her 2-year-old daughter that the brother she was anxiously awaiting had passed away.
“She was looking forward to her brother. She always kissed the belly and said, ‘Baby,’” Cenaida said, as she broke down, sobbing.
The mother has clearly had a hard week since the birth of her firstborn son, and we asked her how she has managed to cope:
“I asked God for help, and He’s giving me a lot of strength now. I am hoping that the government puts its hand on this,” she said.
Even as the family is trying to come to terms with what they believe was an unnecessary tragedy, they are making an appeal to the Government to ensure that no one else suffers the same fate, but also to anyone who has experienced (or who would experience) a similar tragedy to speak up:
“I want to tell the people who, they just go home and they bury di pikni or bury the people who die, not to stay home and just keep it to themselves. Go to report it and let the people know that they will be sued, so they understand,” Cenaida added.
At the time of our interview at around 4:00 Wednesday, the mother said that no one from the Ministry or from the administrations of the hospital had yet gone to talk with the family about what had happened.
It’s been a week and there has been no apology from anybody, no explanation, she informed.
She told us that the family was planning to just leave matters alone, but after speaking with a doctor – who had reportedly left the public service on similar concerns – they were convinced that a lawsuit should be filed, because they were told that if they don’t sue, it will be forgotten and the same practices will continue.
The results of a postmortem on Angel are due Thursday, and the family intends to bury him as soon as possible afterwards, at least by Friday.
The mother tells Amandala that while in Dangriga, they had learned that a woman there had been through a similar ordeal, but the difference was that the baby was not born with the umbilical cord around its neck and the mother was thankfully able to carry her baby home alive.
The family believes, however, that if the mother or father of that baby had sounded an alarm, perhaps the tragedy would not have been repeated with their baby.
When we told Dr. Pitts about the allegation of a second case today, he told us that he had no such information. However, he said that anyone with the details can pass them on to his ministry at the office number: 822-2326, or via the hotline: 629-5604, and they would likewise investigate.
Amandala attempted to reach Health Minister Pablo Marin and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Peter Allen, on the concerns raised by the family. However, when we called them at their Belmopan office Wednesday, we were told that they were both out of the country, attending the 62nd World Health General Assembly in Geneva. Arthur Roches is acting minister, while acting CEO is Patricia Saldivar, Pitts advised.
“I know our Prime Minister is busy running our beautiful country, and I understand he can’t be everywhere. But I just wanted someone, anyone to call me and say this won’t happen again. Our Prime Minister is busy, that I can believe, but was everyone as busy as he is?” Andy Jones wrote in a letter to the Amandala. (See page 5.)
“But what about the Minister of Health; does he care about our hospital?” Jones continued, “Much attention is needed here, and Toledo should not continue to be a victim of such circumstances. We have suffered enough, and my son should not die in vain. The situation is so bad; we can’t even handle maternal cases as an emergency…
“I hope with all my heart that they fix this problem, as I have another friend who is soon to deliver in the Punta Gorda hospital and I’m worried for her.”
Even as they have been burned by this awful experience, the family also expresses sincere gratitude to those who have helped them in their distress.
The family expressed its heartfelt thanks to Jackie Willougby, president of the PSU, who sought help for Cenaida, by procuring a suit from Juanita’s Store in Belize City and a coffin from David Coye. Willoughby is also assisting the family with getting a flight back to P.G. Thursday afternoon, to bury Angel.
While the Ministry conducts its investigation into what went wrong to bring about this tragedy, Cenaida proposes a simple solution to avoid a repeat: “If they don’t love the job, then just go home. You need to love the job.”
(Please see story on page 25: “Mother delivers baby herself in PG hospital”)