By CAROL MATROO Sunday, September 20 2009

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Jerry Narace...

Health Minister Jerry Narace has called for an immediate investigation into the death of a baby while still in its mother’s womb, and has given the South West Regional Health Authority 48 hours to account for the incident.

In response to an e-mail sent to the Health Ministry, yesterday, Narace said he had been apprised of the situation and was “very concerned over this incident.”

The call for an investigation came after a young mother, after being admitted to the San Fernando General Hospital, found out her baby died inside of her while under the care of doctors at the hospital. Nirmala Mansingh, 26, who was eight months pregnant, began haemorrhaging on Monday night. On Tuesday morning, an ambulance was summoned to take her to the hospital, where she spent several hours sitting in a chair as there were no beds available.

According to the woman’s sister, Anita Ramlogan, Mansingh remained on the chair bleeding until 8 pm when a bed became available. It was only then that she was examined by doctors.

Ramlogan said an ultrasound was done and showed that the baby was alive. However, Mansingh was told that nothing could be done until this coming Wednesday because the doctors wanted to “see how the baby was growing.”

“The baby was alive until Thursday. My sister couldn’t deliver the baby so they did a Caesarian- section and took out the baby. What we want to know is why they didn’t take the baby at once. My sister was still bleeding, they did nothing, so why wait until the baby died?

“My sister was eight months pregnant. You know how hard it is to lose a child when you reach so far? We want to know why they didn’t do a C-section in the first place,” an angry Ramlogan said.

Mansingh’s husband, Trevor, said his wife had no complications during her pregnancy and was healthy. He also said that his wife did not have any problems with her first pregnancy – the couple has a two-year-old boy – and was not told what caused the baby’s death.

Narace expressed his sympathy to the Mansingh family for this unfortunate incident.