Rhon­dor Dowlat

Keisha Ay­ers nev­er got the chance to bond with her bounc­ing ba­by boy.

The first-time moth­er died at 24, mere days af­ter giv­ing birth via cae­sare­an sec­tion at the Women's Hos­pi­tal, Mount Hope.

Her com­mon-law-hus­band, Ju­ma Charles, 30, says it all start­ed on the night of April 8, when h?e took her to the hos­pi­tal where she was ad­mit­ted.

Af­ter go­ing through labour for over 12 hours, Ay­ers, who en­dured a full se­mes­ter of nine-months, want­ed to give birth nat­u­ral­ly, was tak­en to the op­er­at­ing the­atre where the C-sec­tion was done.

On April 9, at about 9.22 pm, ba­by Daniel Charles was born. He was a healthy ba­by and weighed close to eight pounds.

But Charles told the Guardian yes­ter­day that he was told by doc­tors that his ba­by boy had to be hos­pi­talised for the next sev­en days be­cause the ba­by al­leged­ly got in­fect­ed with bac­te­ria in his blood and as a re­sult had to be placed on an­tibi­otics.

Ay­ers, of San­ta Rosa, Ari­ma, was sub­se­quent­ly dis­charged on April 13 dur­ing the lunchtime vis­it­ing hours.

"This is where it got strange be­cause Keisha, to me, was in no way ready to be dis­charged. When she had called me that morn­ing she told me she was dis­charged and had faint­ed while chang­ing her clothes. She al­so told me she was vom­it­ing con­stant­ly. While there, she was giv­en painkillers and tablets for up­set stom­ach," Charles said.

"Even when I went to the neo-na­tal ward to pick her up, she was vom­it­ing while sign­ing her doc­u­ments and noth­ing was done by the nurs­es or doc­tors there," he added.

Charles said when he took her home, Ay­ers con­tin­ued to com­plain of ex­cru­ci­at­ing pains and her legs "lock­ing-up."

"I thought it was nat­ur­al that be­cause of the C-Sec­tion she would be ex­pe­ri­enc­ing pains for a few days so I kept rub­bing her with oint­ment to help re­lieve the pain but it con­tin­ued and grew worse. I even no­ticed that her eyes were look­ing sort of strange."

Charles said last Mon­day, they got a call say­ing that the ba­by was dis­charged. He ex­plained that be­cause of the con­di­tion Ay­ers was in, he de­cid­ed to go to the hos­pi­tal by him­self to re­ceive the ba­by, but while there was told that it was hos­pi­tal's pol­i­cy for the moth­er to be there to re­ceive the ba­by.

He said he fur­ther ex­plained to the nurs­es and doc­tors but they would not give him his ba­by.

Charles went back home and got Ay­ers dressed and took her to the hos­pi­tal.

"When I took her, she was in pains and vom­it­ing and they nev­er even checked up on her. They just gave her pa­pers to sign and then re­leased the ba­by. We went home af­ter but she was too weak and in ex­treme pain. She vom­it­ed every­thing she ate and drank."

On Fri­day, Charles said Ay­ers' con­di­tion wors­ened and she grew weak­er than usu­al.

"All this time I am think­ing it is be­cause of the C-Sec­tion she was like this but when I saw she got worse I de­cid­ed to take her to the hos­pi­tal."

Charles got her dressed and held her up as he tried to walk her to his ve­hi­cle. Up­on reach­ing the front door of their home, Ay­ers fell on her knees.

"She told me she was too weak and couldn't go on. So I sat on the floor with her and held her. I called the am­bu­lance and with­in 15 min­utes they ar­rived. But be­fore the am­bu­lance got there I re­mem­ber her body feel­ing cold and I put my hand by her nose to feel her breath but it was very slight," he said.

Charles said when the para­medics ar­rived they quick­ly placed her in the am­bu­lance and took her to the Ari­ma Dis­trict Hos­pi­tal.

"I fol­lowed with my car and when I reached the para­medics told me to go to the front and sign up some doc­u­ments. While I was there, one of the para­medics came and told me to come in­side. That was when I was told that she had died. She died be­fore they reached the hos­pi­tal," he said.

Weep­ing, Charles called for an­swers.

"I am bro­ken with her gone. I need an­swers from the doc­tors and nurs­es."

An au­top­sy will be per­formed on Ay­ers' body to­day at the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, Mount Hope.