Deyalsingh awaits advice on woman's death after C-section

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh. -
Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh. -

HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said an autopsy has been done on Sherise Williams, who died after she fell while walking to the bathroom at Port of Spain General Hospital after a caesarean section,

He was replying in the House of Representatives on Friday to an urgent question by Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh on whether an independent committee would be set up to investigate the death.

Deyalsingh offered his condolences.

“The Ministry of Health’s adverse-event policy is automatically engaged in circumstances like this.

“An autopsy has in fact been done and the results will be shared with the family. Before the autopsy, the North West Regional Health Authority provides the Directorate of Women’s Health and the CMO (Chief Medical Officer) with preliminary findings.”

Deyalsingh said the policy says the final autopsy results must afterwards be reviewed by the CMO and the Director of Women’s Health.

“Pending the results of this examination, they will determine what steps need to be taken, if any, moving forward.”

Indarsingh asked about any independent probe, if requested by the family.

Deyalsingh said, “The establishment of a committee will be guided by the advice given to me as minister by the director of Women’s Health, the Chief Medical Officer, and of course the family’s wishes will be taken into consideration as we do counselling for them. All of those matters will be considered on the way forward.”

Replying to a query by Fyzabad MP Dr Lackram Bodoe as to whether the death was preventable, Deyalsingh said TT had met its Sustainable Development Goals targets on maternal mortality 12 years before the due date of 2030, although lamenting Williams’s death.

“The issue of maternal mortality was a very tragic one for very many years. We have now maintained, since 2016, very good numbers, but it is still a tragedy for those small numbers that do unfortunately die.”

He said maternal deaths had fallen by 2016. He added that the ministry’s goal has been to have no deaths but for those which are non-preventable, and this has been achieved.

“The days when women were dying once a month are long gone. But every death is a tragedy, this one included.

“All of our maternal deaths, as rare as they are now, are non-preventable due to patient factors.”

One such factor, he lamented, was that in the public sector 40 per cent of women only turn up for screening in their second or third trimester of pregnancy, as opposed to better turnout rates in the private sector.

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