Chairman anguished; Three suspended Over death Of mother and new-born

REGIONAL SIX CHAIRMAN MR. DAVID ARMOGAN IS ANGUISHED OVER THE
RECENT DEATH OF A MOTHER AND HER NEW-BORN following the delivery of the
child at the New Amsterdam Hospital and backed the investigations into the loss of the two lives.
“We had an incident recently which caught national attention with regards to a young lady that
died at the New Amsterdam Hospital. The mother didn’t die at New Amsterdam, she died in
Georgetown, but she was treated at New Amsterdam hospital and then sent to Georgetown
Hospital. But, by the time she reached Georgetown Hospital, she was almost at the point of
death,” the East Berbice Corentyne Regional Democratic Council (RDC) Chairman told
Thursday’s statutory meeting of Councillors.
Lewis Shahadeo’s family wants justice for her death, and Armogan backed their call which
President Irfaan Ali and Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony echoed when news of their deaths
first circulated nationwide. Dr Neville Gobin. Gobin launched the probe which has since been
completed with a physician and two nurses suspended.
The deaths of the mother and child have left a bad taste in the mouth of pregnant mothers in
Region Six, a predominantly agricultural area, Armogan told RDC Councillors Thursday.
Concerned Guyanese have taken to social media to add their voices to the most-recent deaths
linked child’s birth at a local health institution. The Maternal Unit at the New Amsterdam
Hospital is now under serious public suspicions, Armogan said.
“This is not an easy situation to deal with because when a family loses their child and it’s a
mother and a child, and the woman would have already had three children this not an easy
situation for them, and so we have to give them much support in the circumstances. At the end of
to (investigation) exercise if there is any evidence to show persons had not done their duty in the
way that it was supposed to be done, or, if there was any carelessness or any misconduct, those
persons will be dealt with,” the RC assured.

Late Thursday night, the doctor and the two nurses were apparently found culpable and were
suspended according to reliable information reaching www.aroundtheregions.com. So far, their
identities have been withheld by Region Six authorities.
Armogan and Agriculture Minister, Mr. Zulfikar Mustapha and other senior Regional officials
visited grieving, but gracious, family members.
The image of the NA hospital has taken a hit, and expectant mothers are now avoiding giving
birth at the institution, the RDC Chairman disclosed.
“The maternity ward virtually became empty as people lost confidence in the maternity section
and because of that all those who were preparing to get baby they went away. I don’t know
where they are going and get their babies, but they went away as most of them pick up their bags
and walked. You can’t blame them because they are scared so we need to put our house in order
too,” Armogan said passionately.
He continued, “I don’t want to cover up for anybody or to cover up for any system. Whatever has
happened, I can’t have undone…but we have to go and ensure that there is no repeat of these
kinds of situations,” the visibly troubled RDC official told his colleagues.
“We have more people now who… the President has appointed to various positions so we
will utilize them going around to these various health institutions to make sure that they
are functioning properly,” Chairman Armogan assured.