Family wants justice

seeking answers: Simone Timothy holds her one-year-old son at her Bethel home yesterday
. —Photo: ELIZABETH WILLIAMS

The family of Simone Timothy, of Tobago, wants justice after the death of her baby girl at the Scarborough Regional Hospital.

Timothy, who already had a one-year-old son, gave birth to the girl on November 25 at the Scarborough hospital.

"When they delivered me, I said, 'Doctor, what it is, a girl?' I was like very happy to know. I said, 'Everything okay with her?' He said, 'Yes, she is very healthy, no problems, nothing wrong with her,'" Timothy said.

Joy turned to sorrow on November 27 when Timothy, still warded at the hospital, went to the nursery at the hospital around 5.40 a.m. to breastfeed her baby and observed her child was motionless.

"So I went and I called a nurse; she was right outside the nursery. I told the nurse, 'My baby not moving.' She said, 'Hold on.' I said, 'Nurse, what you mean by hold on. I tell you my baby not moving,'" Timothy said.

Simone said when her baby was born, it was determined by doctors she had jaundice, and treatment was administered in the form of antibiotics, phototherapy and an eye mask was placed over the baby's eyes while under blue light, in a cot at the nursery.

"But when I went and met her that morning, the mask that was over her eyes was down on her nose. Later when I ask them for the mask, they don't know where it gone. It mysteriously disappear and could not be found," Timothy said

The family told the Express an autopsy conducted by the doctors at the hospital determined the baby was not receiving enough oxygen, and IV fluid was found in the brain of the baby.

Her mother-in-law, Esther Douglas, said Timothy has not slept since the incident and cries frequently. She said no counselling was offered to the now distraught mother when she was discharged, and the family has since arranged their own counselling for the mother.

"Delivery was okay and everything, and to go the following day, two days after, and meet a dead baby, it was not nice," Douglas said.

The family wrote a letter to the customer relations officer of the Scarborough Regional Hospital, dated December 3, and to date, there has been no response from hospital officials. This family is now calling for justice.

CEO of the Tobago Regional Health Authority Paula Chester-Cumberbatch, when contacted, told the Express she was aware of the matter, which is an unfortunate one. She said an investigation is being conducted.

Reproduced from express Trinidad