Yet another family is calling for justice after a death in the public health sector.
This time, however, Valerie Mc Bernie-Taylor's family wants justice not only for her but her unborn twin sons after the expecting mother was reportedly pronounced dead on arrival at the Point Fortin Hospital on Saturday.
The family was made to suffer even more yesterday when an autopsy was postponed after the pathologist at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, sent the family back to the San Fernando General Hospital to get certain documents from her stay there, including an ultra sound.
Up to late yesterday, however, Mc Bernie-Taylor's husband, Jason Taylor, had only received one of the relevant reports from the SFGH, where his wife was warded for four days some two weeks ago.
He has to return there this morning to collect other reports before heading back to the FSC with all the documents.
In an interview with the T&T Guardian, Taylor blamed the healthcare system for his wife's death and cried out for justice for her.
He said Mc-Bernie-Taylor, 24, was seven months pregnant with twins when she collapsed at her Walker Road, Egypt Village, Point Fortin, home on Saturday morning.
The family called the ambulance service but after being told the service would be coming from Siparia they rushed her to the Point Fortin District Hospital, where she died.
"If the ambulance had come on time, my wife would still be alive," said a distraught Taylor.
"I need justice for the three lives I have to live without now. How could the area hospital have no ambulances?" he asked.
Taylor said his wife had spent four days at the SFGH after she complained of feeling ill and he believes doctors saw something that they never told the family about.
"They did ultrasounds on her but they never call us in to see the results. They never told us if anything was wrong. Her blood pressure was high and I believe they saw something was wrong and still decided to send her home."
Disputes doctors' claims
Taylor also denied claims by doctors that his wife was already dead when she was taken to the hospital.
"When we get there, they hooked her up to the machine and I saw the line on the (heart) monitor going up and down, she was still breathing, still alive."
He said after standing next to his wife for ten minutes, he walked outside.
"Five minutes after, the doctor come and say my wife pass on. Now I hearing them saying she was dead on arrival. They took her pressure and everything when we get there, why they would do that if she dead?"
Mc Bernie-Taylor's sister, Giselle Abraham, recalled hearing her younger sister's last cries early Saturday morning.
"I heard her scream out about half one and when I went to the window, I saw Jason run out and say she fell down. I ran to their house and she was lying there with froth all over her face and running out from her mouth," she said.
Abraham said family members, desperate to get help for Mc Bernie-Taylor, used a wheel barrow to carry her from their home to a car.
"We put her in the wheelbarrow and push her to the road where the car was. I hold her head and her husband and my brother was pushing."
Abraham said the family is hoping the autopsy will be carried out today.
Khan launches probe
Contacted yesterday, Health Minister Fuad Khan said a full investigation would be conducted to determine whether everything was done to save the mother and her babies.
Sending out condolences to the family, he said he had already instructed the South West Regional Health Authority to reach out to the family and offer counselling to them.
In response to the family's claims that there were no ambulances available at the Point Fortin Hospital, Khan said he would not respond to that allegation until the investigation was completed.
He said when families were in mourning he gave them the opportunity to say what they have to say to relieve their minds, as he knew the death of a loved one was a very stressful time.
In an interview yesterday, Medical Director of the SWRHA, Dr Anand Chattergoon, said he could not say whether the woman's life would have been saved if an ambulance had responded to the family's call. But he could not say whether there were any ambulances working in Point Fortin that night and directed the question to SWRHA CEO Anil Gosine. Gosine could not be reached for comment yesterday as calls to his cellphone went unanswered.
Chattergoon said to his knowledge, Mc Bernie-Taylor arrived at the hospital already dead, but said the autopsy would clear up all of the family's unanswered questions.