A Clear Case Of Medical Negligence<\/p>\n
A premature baby boy has lost his left arm due to alleged negligence at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the San Fernando General Hospital.<\/p>\n
The two-month old baby, who is battling a fungal infection at the hospital, underwent emergency surgery yesterday to remove the arm from the shoulder.<\/p>\n
The procedure was necessary as the child\u2019s vein was ruptured while being administered intravenous fluid, causing the soft tissues in his arm to die, his relatives were told.<\/p>\n
The baby\u2019s teenage mother was not satisfied with the treatment he received at the hospital and has demanded a thorough investigation.<\/p>\n
The Express is unable to identify the child\u2019s 16-year-old mother, as the circumstances surrounding her pregnancy were the subject of a police criminal investigation regarding who had sexual intercourse with her.<\/p>\n
Relatives were informed yesterday the child may not survive the surgery because of his fragile condition. \u201cI couldn\u2019t stop crying when they told me this. I just sign the paper and walked away. He didn\u2019t come here for that. He came to the hospital because he was premature. I can\u2019t understand what led to this, we need answers,\u201d his maternal grandmother said.<\/p>\n
The little boy was removed from the operating theatre in stable condition around 1.30 p.m. yesterday. \u201cI am just happy he is out of that operation but he will have to live with their mistake for the rest of his life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The grandmother said she was disgusted by the events leading to the amputation of the left arm of her first grandchild.<\/p>\n
The Point Fortin woman said, \u201cMy daughter delivered the baby boy at the Point Fortin District Hospital on September 23. My daughter didn\u2019t know she was pregnant. She started getting severe belly pains and I gave her medication but it was not easing. We went to the hospital and the nurses said she was pregnant and having a miscarriage but I saw the baby coming and called the doctors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the baby was born prematurely, he was transferred to the San Fernando General Hospital\u2019s neonatal intensive care unit.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut before the baby went there I had to sign a consent form. My daughter was told there was a bacterial infection in the unit and placing the baby there was at our risk. So I signed the form because there are no facilities in Point Fortin. And two days later the baby contracted the infection,\u201d the grandmother said.<\/p>\n
That was where the family\u2019s struggles began.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree weeks ago, we went to visit the baby at the hospital. His right hand was swollen. We asked about it and got conflicting responses. The doctor told us he rolled and the needle broke in his hand. Then the nurse told us it was an IV burn,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The IV connection was then switched to the left hand.<\/p>\n
The hospital contacted the grandmother on Tuesday, asking that she accompany the child\u2019s mother to the hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt 9.30 a.m. yesterday (Tuesday), the hospital called. We did not go and see him Sunday and Monday. They said if I can come, so I asked what was wrong with the baby. They said he was feeding well and he was off the oxygen. I said I don\u2019t think you call me to tell me that. Then they said they need us to come up to the hospital. They said I need to bring the child\u2019s mother but she was at school, so I had to get her,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The grandmother said what they saw at the hospital was a mother\u2019s worst nightmare.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we reached there, the doctors came quickly but my daughter noticed it as soon as she walked in. The child\u2019s left hand was blacker than his entire body. I asked what happened to the child. A nurse said the IV ruptured in his hand and caused the soft tissue in his hand to die,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The baby\u2019s fingertips were hanging and the arm appeared lifeless, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey told us they would have to cut off the fingertips and they would be stubs. They said they will try to see if they can save his lower arm. If they can\u2019t, they will have to cut if off from his elbow. We want to know whether the child was being monitored at all while he was in ICU. Why did they allow this to happen? He went in because his lungs were not fully developed and he lost a limb,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The grandmother said her daughter was prevented from taking photographs of her son and she was warned to remain silent on the issue, as she was underage.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut her age has nothing to do with this. The child lost his limb because of negligence on the part of the hospital. When my grandchild went there I was warned by a nurse to visit him everyday because babies die daily and we should be very cautious. That\u2019s exactly what happened here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
CHATOORGOON CALLS FOR REPORT<\/p>\n
The San Fernando hospital\u2019s medical director, Dr Anand Chatoorgoon, said he was aware of the incident and has asked the hospital\u2019s neonatal unit for a statement on the incident. \u201cI should receive that this afternoon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Chatoorgoon said he was not aware that the baby\u2019s guardian was required to sign a consent form transferring the baby to the hospital at her own risk. \u201cFrom time to time you get infections in the neonatal unit and we deal with it, because this is a hospital But I am not aware that she would have to sign a form for that. I will investigate that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Extracted From: Trinidad Express Newspaper<\/strong><\/p>\n Published on Nov 21, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Clear Case Of Medical Negligence A premature baby boy has lost his left arm due to alleged negligence at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the San Fernando General Hospital. The two-month old baby, who is battling a fungal infection at the hospital, underwent emergency surgery yesterday to remove the arm from the shoulder. The procedure was necessary as the child\u2019s vein was ruptured while being administered intravenous fluid, causing the soft tissues in his arm to die, his relatives were told. The baby\u2019s teenage mother was not satisfied with the treatment he received at the hospital and has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medical-complaints-council"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/martingeorge.net\/v2\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/martingeorge.net\/v2\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/martingeorge.net\/v2\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martingeorge.net\/v2\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martingeorge.net\/v2\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/martingeorge.net\/v2\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2948\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/martingeorge.net\/v2\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martingeorge.net\/v2\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martingeorge.net\/v2\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}