Fuad hits ‘heartless’ medics

ALL'S WELL: Simone Chadee with her newborn daughter.
ALL'S WELL: Simone Chadee with her newborn daughter.

HEARTLESS. That was how former health minister Dr Fuad Khan described the alleged decision of the staff at the Marabella Health Centre to turn away a woman in labour on Friday afternoon.

As a result, Simone Chadee gave birth to her baby in the back seat of a car on the way to the San Fernando General Hospital.

Baby Athena has been given a clean bill of health and weighed 2.8 kilograms.

Khan said the excuse given by staff at the centre, that they were not equipped to deliver the baby, was unreasonable when a district health visitor (DHV) was supposed to be at the centre ready to assist any pregnant woman.

In an interview with Newsday yesterday, Khan also said the only resource needed to deliver a baby was a person trained to do so and something to cut the umbilical cord. He said a doctor could also have delivered the baby. “Policewomen and policemen have done it so many times, they have delivered babies on the road in different situations. So I cannot understand why this woman was turned away from a health centre.”

Khan added, “This lady delivered her baby in a car, so what they are saying is that the car was the better facility than the health centre. “I think the staff there were very incompetent and lazy. That was definitely an act of heartlessness on their behalf.”

On Friday afternoon shortly after 4 pm, Chadee was at her Monty Street, Marabella home when she went into labour. She hired a car to take her to the health centre, but when she arrived with her niece Amalee Rivers, the staff said they did not have any facilities to deliver the baby.

She was allegedly told: “Why did you come here and not go to the hospital?” Chadee said her niece tried to explain that because of the traffic in Marabella, she would not make it to the hospital in time, but the staff insisted she go to the hospital.

Chadee said the driver took her to the Marabella police station, and from there the police escorted them to the hospital. Athena was born on the way, delivered by Chadee’s niece. Staff of the South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) have since contacted the mother and an investigation has started.

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"Fuad hits ‘heartless’ medics"

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