Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan promises that firm action will be taken against a private medical institution if an investigation into the death of Freeport mother Sasha Bisnath reveals any signs of negligence on their part.
Khan said a probe into Bisnath’s death was started on Saturday by chairman of the South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) Dr Lackram Bodoe and a team of doctors.
Last Thursday, 28-year-old Bisnath of Orange Field Road, Carapichaima, delivered her second child, Siara, via caesarian section at a La Romaine private medical institution. However, within the hour, she began to suffer severe internal hemorrhaging and was transferred to the San Fernando General Hospital, where she died hours later.
An autopsy at the San Fernando Mortuary by Dr Hubert Daisley revealed she died from disseminating intravascular coagulation.
In an interview yesterday, Khan said: “The ministry of health has a responsibility to oversee all health institutions in T&T. We are responsible for the good governance of health care. “We have the medical board, the medical council and Private Hospitals Association, so there are a lot of bodies to look into any complications of mortality and morbidity.
“We have the power to audit the institution and the work of professionals at any public or private institution. If during the investigation they come up lacking, we then write the professional or institution to answer questions as to why it happened and why was this not done to international best practices, based on the evidence.”
Speaking via telephone, Bodoe said the SWHRA would investigate from the time Bisnath arrived at the hospital, while the ministry of health would deal with the private institution. He added that a preliminary report on Bisnath’s death had been completed and the minister should receive it by Thursday.
Bodoe said: “It is standard procedure to investigate any maternal death occurring at SWRHA. A preliminary report based on the clinical treatment and post-mortem findings was forwarded to the SWRHA board.
“This report will be sent today (yesterday) to the Chief Medical Officer and the honourable minister of health for their attention.” Bodoe said the investigating team would meet with Bisnath’s family soon to discuss the findings of the report and to offer counselling.
He stressed that proper health care was one of the major factors in determining a developing nation and expressed concern over the maternal and infant mortality rate, saying it was one of the critical areas the ministry was addressing. He added that each maternal death or complication had to be investigated thoroughly.
“I’m going to start auditing a lot of stuff now. Last two and a half years, we have been putting things in place on infant mortality and trying to prevent them.” He said actions against an institution could start from requesting further training for medical staff as well as the medical practitioner.
However, Bodoe said complications could occur and the facts must be carefully examined to determine if there was any malpractice. “We are going to do exactly that, look at the facts from the medical institution and the autopsy which shows the cause of death at that point in time.
“But there are other things that can happen leading up to death. We’ll have to look at the history of the patient before anything occurred, look at the ante-natal care, look at the pre-operative assessment, what occurred during the operation, what were the monitoring parameters after operation; pressure, pulse, heart rate, and the quality of staff.”
He said looking into all these details was a lengthy process. But as many celebrate Christmas today, Bisnath’s husband Damien Bisnath and their two children, two-year-old Solora and five-day-old Siara, will spend Christmas night at a wake for her.
Damien said they will spend Christmas at his father-in-law’s home at Camden, Couva. He said forensic pathologist Dr Hughvon des Vignes might perform a second autopsy this morning at a funeral home.
