A Gasparillo couple is calling on the San Fernando General Hospital to release the body of their baby, who died hours after his birth so they could give him a decent cremation. The parents — Oneil and Leela Ganga — also want hospital authorities to tell them how their baby died after he was born healthy and had a strong heartbeat.
The mother said no one at the hospital wanted to give answers and she was hoping and praying the hospital did not dispose of the body without her permission. The parents are seeking legal advice. Ganga said her baby was delivered by caesarean section and she and her husband were able to hold him and even take a photo of him on their cellphone.
That picture, plus a sympathy card from the hospital, which bears the baby’s hand and footprints, a lock of his hair, his navel string and hospital identification are all the reminders she has of her baby. Ganga, who was almost seven months pregnant with her first child, said she was admitted to the hospital on October 10 after arriving there in excruciating pain.
She said an ultrasound showed the baby was on his side and one of his hands was pointing towards her womb which might have been responsible for the pain. She said her amniotic sac was broken by a nurse. “I don’t know what happened when the nurse broke my water bag (amniotic sac) but I started to bleed heavily... from my pillow to my blanket, they were all soaked with blood.”
Ganga said she was taken into the theatre to have a c-section and was given seven injections but still felt every cut into her flesh. “I kept bawling, ‘Ouch, ouch,’ every time they jook me with the knife. They tie my foot and hands and then they put me under anaesthetic and placed a tube down my throat. After that I went into a sleep.” She said when she woke around 4 am that Saturday morning, she asked for her baby and the nurses told her he was all right.
Around 6 am, she said, the baby, although premature, was brought to her in her bed at Ward 13b. She and her husband, who both held the baby, were emotional and were in tears, she said, and she begged the nurse on duty to allow her to take a picture on her cellphone which she is now glad she did. Ganga said her husband left shortly after around 7 am to get clothes for her and the baby.
“Shortly after he left the nurse came and asked me for his cell number. He had only reached by the security booth when they called him. “He run up because he thought something had happened to me. He came up to the ward and stood by the nursery door, which was two beds away from my bed. I saw him crying and I knew something was wrong and he told me that the baby had died.”
Geeta said she was discharged on Sunday, without the body of her baby and when they asked for the baby, staff at the hospital told her husband he had to come and sign a death certificate, then get a birth certificate and sign some other document before they would be told how the baby died. “It seems as though they are hiding something, “ Ganga said.
CEO of the South West Regional Health Authority Anil Gosine said he was not aware of the incident but now that it has been brought to his attention he would have the matter investigated.