Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

"We love you mum­my." These words, scrawled with a black mark­er by his five-year-old son, con­tin­ues to pierce the heart of Lorne Ram­soomair, al­most three weeks af­ter his wife, Chrys­tal, died while un­der­go­ing a Cae­sare­an sec­tion at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.Since the death, Lorne, 45, has been try­ing to com­fort his three chil­dren- Chris­t­ian, five, Sarah, 18 months and new-born ba­by, Danielle.Hold­ing Danielle gen­tly against his chest, Lorne said he could of­fer no words of so­lace.

"I told my son that God had asked mum­my to come to Heav­en to be a guardian an­gel and she had agreed and al­though he can­not see her she is watch­ing over us all," Lorne said.Based on his be­liefs as a Pres­by­ter­ian, he said he had re­fused to use the word "death" when speak­ing about Chrys­tal.He said Chris­t­ian had be­come more an­gry and ag­gres­sive since the demise. Sarah, how­ev­er, did not want to be left alone and con­tin­ued to stay in his arms when­ev­er he was home, he added.Say­ing Chrys­tal, 29, was his soul­mate and the source of his hap­pi­ness dur­ing their sev­en-year mar­riage, Lorne said her preg­nan­cy and sub­se­quent death were sud­den.

With tears brim­ming on his eyes, Lorne said they were nev­er told by any doc­tor that a third Cae­sar­i­an was con­sid­ered high risk."Thou­sands of peo­ple around the world have had a third Cae­sar­i­an and it is done suc­cess­ful­ly, so we nev­er be­lieved it would end this way," Lorne cried.He ad­mit­ted to ow­ing over $12,000 in med­ical fees at the Sur­gi-Med and Gulf View Med­ical Com­plex but vowed to re­pay every cent. Chrys­tal gave birth to her two chil­dren, via Cae­sar­i­an, at these in­sti­tu­tions.How­ev­er, be­cause they could not af­ford it, Lorne said they both took the de­ci­sion to have the ba­by at the San Fer­nan­do Hos­pi­tal, be­liev­ing there were enough equip­ment and ex­pe­ri­enced staff to fa­cil­i­tate the process.Lorne ex­plained that when Chrys­tal died on March 4, part of him al­so died.

"I can­not ex­plain how I feel. I will wear our wed­ding rings un­til I die. I will mind my three chil­dren and make sure they are well ed­u­cat­ed. They are my life now," he said.Lorne has hired two as­sis­tants to help him care for the chil­dren. One of them, Don­na Stew­art, cares for the ba­by dur­ing the day.Lorne, who opened his own busi­ness, CLC En­ter­pris­es, last year, said he was sur­viv­ing on his sav­ings at present. He dis­missed ru­mours he was sui­ci­dal and did not con­firm whether he was pro­ceed­ing with le­gal ac­tion."No amount of mon­ey could bring her back. I have not spo­ken to any at­tor­ney. All I want is some clo­sure on this mat­ter. I want to know how my wife died," Lorne said.He added he met Chrys­tal in 2003 when he worked as a man­ag­er with TGI Fri­days, Ch­agua­nas.Lorne ex­plained he had nev­er been in love be­fore he met her and life with­out her was dis­mal.

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Dr Je­han Ali, who treat­ed Chrys­tal Boodoo-Ram­soomair dur­ing her ninth to 35 weeks of preg­nan­cy, said the on­ly high risk in a sense at­tached to her case was that she would have had two pre­vi­ous C-sec­tion, nei­ther of which he was in­volved.Ali re­ferred her to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al to have her de­liv­ery.He said: "Her third preg­nan­cy was not com­pli­cat­ed. If some­one who nev­er had a C-sec­tion but has a se­vere heart dis­ease or fi­broids or the ba­by may be breeched, then that per­son would be con­sid­ered high risk."But in com­pe­tent hands, the risk be­comes al­most equal as a nor­mal de­liv­ery."In first world coun­tries, the risk of C-sec­tion is al­most the same as that of a nor­mal de­liv­ery. That is why peo­ple are now re­quest­ing C-sec­tions to de­liv­er their ba­bies.In an in­ter­na­tion­al study, fe­male ob­ste­tri­cians were asked how they would like to have their ba­bies and 30 per­cent opt­ed for C-sec­tion.C-sec­tion is al­most safe as hav­ing a nor­mal de­liv­ery once that per­son is fit.