The latest couple to threaten the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) with legal action say their baby died after doctors at the Port-of-Spain Neonatal ICU misdiagnosed the mother and were forced to do a C-Section after realising their error.
The situation was detailed in a pre-action protocol letter issued yesterday by Anand Ramlogan SC.
The case took the number of infant deaths at the facility to 16 over the period June 2022 to April 9. In a letter issued on Tuesday, Ramlogan counted 18 cases that were supposed to include 16 confirmed cases with two additional pending ones. Guardian Media was told yesterday there was a miscalculation, and there are, in fact, 16 matters.
In all the cases, the parents claim it was mismanagement at the Neonatal ICU that contributed to the death of their child.
In the latest letter, the parents of Ekon Marcelle claimed he was born on April 1, 2022 and died on June 24.
“From May 10, 2022, onward, we are instructed that baby Ekon’s condition began deteriorating, as he was diagnosed with Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC). He was required to do a surgery and multiple blood transfusions. The parents were extremely concerned—they just wanted their baby to return to the state of normalcy he once was in.”
The letter claimed that before the diagnosis, Roberts told doctors she Googled her son’s symptoms and suggested he had NEC, which was dismissed by staff.
The letter stated, “We are instructed that for one of her visits nearing the end of April, Makeda noticed her baby’s abdomen distended and a little discoloured (dark/black). She immediately drew this to the attention of one of the nurses, who then callously dismissed her concerns, saying ‘we jus feed him so he go look so ... wey yuh stressing for?’ Makeda asked about the discolouration as well and did a Google search of his symptoms and asked if her baby boy had developed NEC, as he was showing signs of the same. The nurse then harshly told Makeda ‘yuh playin doctor?! Ent I now tell yuh we feed him?!’”
The letter said the parents, Dave Marcelle, 46, and Makeda Roberts, 41, both police officers, were initially told their child was doing well. Eventually, however, they were told their son needed greater care that included a blood transfusion.
The letter said on April 1, 2022, Roberts was told by officials at the hospital that an emergency C-section was needed, as there was a mix-up with her file and she and another patient were being treated wrongly.
“This situation left Makeda deeply unsettled, prompting her to question the duration of time she had unknowingly been treated based on another patient’s plan, and vice versa. It was only upon reviewing her test results that the doctors recognised the urgent need for a C-section.”
The letter said at 30 weeks gestation, Ekon was born weighing 1.15 pounds following the C-section and had to remain warded for observation, as his weight needed to increase. The parents were reportedly told when their son was five pounds that he was doing well and would be released within two months.
The couple, who built a nursery for their son, have left it untouched for the past two years, the letter said.
Ramlogan, in issuing this latest pre-action letter, confirmed that he had received the medical records of 11 other infants who died. He repeated his call for the state to pay for an independent medical professional to review the records, as no local doctor was available to do so. He said a foreign medical professional was found at a cost of US$5,000 per infant.