The debt of comfort and care owed to the parents of the seven babies who died from infections at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) goes well beyond financial compensation, or any of the apologies and explanations offered so far.
The deeply personal and unspeakable loss they have suffered, which they must process in the glare of public criticisms and scrutiny of this still-unfolding tragedy, needs to be handled with utmost sensitivity by the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) officials and public health personnel involved in this case.
The loss of these seven babies in the space of just four days is a significant black mark on T&T’s health system which has, in recent years, been laying claim to a good infant mortality rate and improvements in neonatal care.
This is supported by data which shows steady improvements since 2020. In 2022, it was 20.276 deaths per 1,000 live births, a 2.06 per cent decline from the previous year’s rate of 20.702 deaths per 1,000 live births. That rate was a 2.02 per cent decline from 2020.
Over quite a few years, predating current Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh, ministry officials had regularly declared steady improvement in infant mortality and had deemed the statistics to be better than in other Caribbean countries.
This single incident has now eroded those gains. Although the full facts of this medical disaster still need to be discovered, there has already been a significant loss of confidence in the NICU at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital which will not be easily regained.
The weight of responsibility this places on the NWRHA demands that the full transparency and disclosure promised by CEO Anthony Blake should not be complicated by the bureaucracy that often hinders probes in the public sector.
The support requested from the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI) and Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) in investigating these infant deaths is also critical for maintaining some degree of objectivity in arriving at the truth in this tragedy.
However, even as all these investigations get underway, the needs of the bereaved parents should not be neglected—mothers dealing with the worst kind of postpartum loss and fathers who are often overlooked in their grief.
The NWRHA officials who are meeting with the babies’ parents today and tomorrow should be prepared to help them navigate the grieving process by providing emotional and other support.
Public concern about the circumstances that led to the deaths of seven vulnerable neonates must also be addressed, with the onus on Deyalsingh to be fully accountable and available to answer the concerns that will inevitably arise as the investigations progress.
His statement to Parliament last Friday did not assuage public outrage over this incident, so he will have to remain at the forefront, as he has been in more pleasant circumstances, to truthfully respond to the questions already being asked about the quality of care provided to those seven neonates after birth and in the first days of life.
There is also a key role for NWRHA chairman Lisa Agard, fresh from another major debacle, to play in providing leadership in this crisis.
Everyone linked to this incident must step up, accept full responsibility, provide all the required interventions and ensure this never happens again.
