Tuesday, March 5 2013

LEAD consultant for the mother who yesterday gave birth via Caesarean section to the country and region’s first sextuplets, Dr Bharat Bassaw, had to justify to a medical team from the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA), on Sunday, why he wanted to bring forward the March 14 delivery date to yesterday.

Dr Bassaw told Newsday at the Mount Hope Women’s Hospital, “we actually made that decision just after 7 am on Sunday”, after the patient (the mother) was experiencing difficulty breathing.

At 12 noon on Sunday, NCRHA chairman Shehenaz Mohammed convened a meeting at which Bassaw had to justify bringing up the delivery date from March 14, to yesterday. That meeting finished at 3 pm, following which last phase preparations were implemented.

“Yesterday (Sunday) we had to make a decision. It was a bit of shock or surprise to many people as to why we had to plan the delivery for today (yesterday). The patient’s condition started to deteriorate. She was actually experiencing difficulty in breathing,” Bassaw said. The process, he added, “was a difficult and stressful journey. We were on test to see how far we could take this pregnancy. We got this patient when she was just seven weeks and took her through to 30 to 31 weeks.”

Once the decision was made to do the operation yesterday, Bassaw said, “as we had organised from before the team was able to come together very quickly. Everyone was here very early (yesterday), and it has happened without any adverse events thus far.”

Bassaw said he went to bed on Sunday and got up early yesterday, “rehearsing every step of the way” in his mind, since, “this was not your routine pregnancy.”