Pre-term babies ‘incompatible with life’

HEALTHY TALK: Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh speaks in Parliament yesterday. PHOTO BY ROGER JACOB
HEALTHY TALK: Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh speaks in Parliament yesterday. PHOTO BY ROGER JACOB

HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said the pre-term babies that died at the San Fernando General Hospital had conditions which made them "incompatible with life" including congenital anomalies and HIV.

He made the comment while responding to a question in the House yesterday posed by Oropouche West MP Vidia Gayadeen-Gopeesingh on the recent increase of neonatal deaths at the San Fernando General Hospital and what was being done to prevent a recurrence.

Deyalsingh said: "In answering this question it pains me to give details I would not normally give out of respect for the families." He reported one baby was born at 29 weeks (11 weeks pre-term) and with severe congenital anomalies including brain defect, kidney defect, limbs, and respiratory ventilative-dependent.

"That baby's life was incompatible with life. It grieves me to give these details but the Opposition doesn't seem to want to let this go." He said another baby was born at 26 weeks (14 weeks early) at 500 grammes which was just over the weight of a bottle of water.

"(It) could not survive. I keep telling the country we had a spate of pre-term deliveries." He said one baby was born at 27 weeks at 1.3 kilogrammes with severe pulmonary haemorrhage and could not survive. Another was born with a combination of HIV and chlamydia passed on by the mother at pre-term while another was born pre-term with Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria which is antibiotic resistant. Another was born at 26 weeks at 710 grammes with pulmonary haemorrhage.

"It pains me to say this. It pains me." Deyalsingh congratulated Newsday and reporter Carol Matroo for being "the only media house that did a proper story on this by interviewing experts in the form of Dr Catherine Minto-Bain." He said Minto-Bain commented there were multiple factors that cause pre-term births some of which were unknown but being overweight while pregnant and being diabetic were big problems in TT.

Deyalsingh said this country is doing "fantastically well" but unfortunately in October and November there were a spate of pre-term deliveries. He added many of the cases were sent by the private sector "because they could not handle it." He said the cases were received with no medical history and no information on what drugs the patients were on.

"And 2018 will go down in the history of this country as the lowest rate of maternal mortality deaths ever. Ever. Fantastic achievements."

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"Pre-term babies ‘incompatible with life’"

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