Nurse dies in childbirth

A 48-year old Registered Nurse died at the Georgetown Hospital yesterday shortly after delivering a baby girl—the third maternity patient to succumb under controversial circumstances in a week.

Charlene Amsterdam, 40, of Q 79 Samon Street, Tucville, and of Amelia’s Ward Linden died sometime around 03:15 at the GPHC, two days after undergoing a caesarian section.

The woman’s reputed husband Eon Giddings told Kaieteur News that his wife was admitted to the institution on Wednesday.
He said that she was taken to the theater after doctors informed her that a normal delivery was not possible. The surgery was performed on Friday morning. Relatives said that Ms. Amsterdam was suffering from fibroids, a condition in which non-cancerous tumours form in the uterus.
According to relatives, the doctors treating her were aware of her condition, and Ms. Amsterdam was attending clinic at the GPHC for her ailment. They said that the woman’s condition was not life threatening.
According to Giddings, his wife began having complications soon after the surgery and had to be taken back to the operating theater.
He said she was taken back to the recovery room for caesarian mothers and was crying out for abdominal and back pains.
As the pains intensified, she was transferred to the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on Saturday morning.
All the while, Giddings said, none of the doctors or nurses treating his wife were telling him or relatives anything about her condition.
“No one told us anything….we kept asking them what’s wrong but no one told us anything” said one relative yesterday.
Giddings said later on Saturday night, a nurse called informing him that his wife was being taken back to the operating theater.
Relatives immediately rushed to the hospital, but the woman was already in theater.
Giddings said that after spending approximately three hours in surgery, his wife was taken back to the ICU.
Shortly after, hospital officials told relatives that she was dead.
Outraged relatives yesterday told Kaieteur News that, apart from her fibroids, the woman was healthy and had not experienced any complications during her pregnancy.
“She was never sick….she worked right through her pregnancy, so this came as a surprise,” one of them said.
Efforts yesterday to contact an official from the Health Ministry proved futile. Amsterdam up until the time of her death was attached to the Georgetown Hospital. She was a nurse for the past 14 years, a profession which she served with pride.
A post mortem examination is expected to b conducted today.
Only last week, two other women died at the Skeldon Hospital shortly after giving birth.
Twenty one year old Yogeeta Bishram died hours after delivering a healthy baby girl.
Esther Dwarka–Bowlin, the Acting Headmistress of Princetown Nursery, died after giving birth to her third child. The woman was taken to the hospital around 8:30 on Friday evening after she began experiencing labour pains.
When relatives arrived for the 06:00am visit she was discovered dead. Investigations have been launched into the two deaths.

Monday, October 25, 2010