SHARLENE RAMPERSAD
and GEISHA KOWLESSAR
The mother of baby Sajjid Rampersad says although she does not believe the findings of an autopsy done yesterday on his tiny body she will not be requesting a second autopsy.
Sheriffa Ali, 34, was responding to comments made by Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan during a press conference yesterday on the autopsy of her 12-day-old son.
Khan told the media that the autopsy on baby Sajjid showed he would not have survived long after birth as there was a large amount of fluid in his brain.
“He saying that but I know to myself for a fact that my baby did not have problems before they induced labour,” said a distraught Ali. “If he had that problem, how could he move about so much during the pregnancy?” she asked.
She has placed the blame for Sajjid’s death on nurses and doctors in the labour ward at the San Fernando General Hospital.
She had previously said doctors refused her repeated request for a caesarean section (C-section) to be performed after she failed to go into labour after spending three days in the hospital.
She was hospitalised on April 12 on the advice of doctors who wanted to deliver her baby two weeks early. On April 13 she was given labour-inducing medication but did not give birth until April 15.
When her son was born, doctors whisked him away and Ali said she was not told of his condition until she demanded answers from hospital staff. She added; “They took too long to take him out. This is their fault. I would have had my baby with me all now... the doctors and nurses in the labour ward have to take the blame for this.” When asked if she and her husband Suresh were contemplating having a second autopsy done, she replied: “I know that was not what caused him to die but you can’t fight the doctors and right now we just not up to asking for a second autopsy.”
She will lay her son to rest tomorrow at Guide’s Funeral Home, San Fernando, in a private ceremony.
“I just want to put my son’s body to rest. There is nothing anyone can do now to bring him back.”
Baby could not be saved—Khan
Baby Sajjid Suresh Rampersad would have died eventually because there was a large amount of fluid in his brain.
Those were the findings of an autopsy which were revealed by Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan during a press conference at the ministry’s head office, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.
“It was shown that the baby had congenital hydrocephalus and as a result the brain in both lobes of that baby was cystic...full of water and fluid.
“Difficult delivery does not cause hydrocephalus. As a result, maybe a cesarian or otherwise, that baby would have succumbed as an infant mortality statistic,” Khan said.
Congenital hydrocephalus is a buildup of excess cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the brain at birth.
Baby Sajjid died 12 days after he was born with tubes hooked up to his tiny body at the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit of the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH).
The baby’s mother, Sheriffa Ali, 34, had said she was told there was a lack of oxygen to the brain. She said she was told by doctors that the baby had suffered brain injury and was deemed brain dead.
Khan, who apologised to Ali, her husband, Suresh Rampersad, and to the relatives of mothers and babies who had also recently died, said such cases were considered “medical conditions that do not respond well to treatment” and as a result very little could have been done to save their lives.
Asked if a shunt could have been placed in baby Sajjid’s brain so as to drain the fluid, Khan said that would not have helped.
Saying that there was a 90 per cent success rate at the public hospitals, Khan added: “I want to assure the population that not only are we doing our audit systems but we do investigate every single problem that occurs.
“The hospital system is safe and the majority of doctors and nurses are giving good and proper service.”
Khan said he had also received reports of patients being verbally abused by medical and ancillary staff members and vice-verse.
“There has to be a better approach to service and relationships between staff and patients in our health care system,” Khan urged.