Mom wants to bury dead son; waits for probe

Tahia Jordan, the 23-year-old mother who was sent home from the Port-of-Spain General Hospital with her dead foetus on Thursday, says she would like to bury the foetus as soon as possible. On Thursday, Jordan told the media that she returned home after suffering a miscarriage the day before, only to make the horrific discovery of her dead five-month-old baby wrapped in an incopad inside a black garbage bag. 

Recalling the ordeal she suffered Wednesday, Jordan said she felt a sharp pain in her lower back while at work at Rituals Coffee House, Maraval, and later felt “something came out of her.” Jordan said she only found out she was 20 weeks pregnant the day before she miscarried. She was taken to the PoSGH’s Casualty Department, where she was attended to before being warded. Jordan said she was later allowed to see the foetus and was told that it was a boy, adding the pregnancy was her third and the miscarriage her second. 

Yesterday, Jordan said she had already picked out a name for whenever she gave birth to a son and would have named the baby, had he survived, Kaiden. She added that she was taken back to the hospital on Thursday night and left yesterday without receiving the counselling she had been promised, saying she opted to leave as the counselling was long in coming.

NWHRA comments

CEO of the North West Regional Health Authority, Judith Baliram, said yesterday she would have to seek the board’s approval to assist in the burial. On Thursday, Baliram told the T&T Guardian the authority would be willing to assist and when contacted yesterday re-affirmed the position, adding that the disbursing of money was a board decision.

Baliram added that a further report would have to be submitted to Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan after culpability had been clearly determined. She said there was a clear breach of protocol, which meant someone was culpable and had to be held accountable.