Baby’s autopsy delayed due to administrative tardiness

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The family of a baby who died during birth at the Sangre Grande Hospital last week will have to wait longer to know how the cause of death as the autopsy has been delayed again, due to administrative tardiness by health authorities.

Mother Patrice Munroe said that the autopsy was initially carded for Monday but was postponed to yesterday.

However, when they returned to the Eric Williams’ Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) yesterday, the pathologist told her it could not be done because of missing documentation.

“The hospital didn’t send no information about what happened to the child,” she said.

“He (the pathologist) said he’d have to call Grande and then get in contact with us.”

Since the incident on Wednesday, January 26, Munroe has been seeking answers.

The Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) has since stated the death was a result of, what it called, an “abnormal birth”.

In a release on Thursday, the ERHA said “there was no breach in the administration of the duty of care whether by action or omission.”

It is a conclusion the ERHA chief executive officer Ronald Tsoi-a-Fatt believes will be backed up by the autopsy.

On Sunday he told Guardian Media a full report was sent to the EWMSC. He could not be reached yesterday to comment on the alleged missing documents.

While the ERHA believed the incident to be an “unfortunate but natural occurrence,” Munroe and her husband believe it to be the result of malpractice by the medical team at the hospital.

“I telling myself them do something. They do something wrong because the child heartbeat, everything was good until the woman chook and blood start to run,” she told Guardian Media on Friday.

To prove the baby was healthy, Munroe is attempting to get the medical records from the Sangre Grande Hospital and the region’s health centre where she did her pregnancy clinics.

However, she said that too hit a snag.

She said they were told at both sites they needed to apply for the records and wait two weeks before they received them.