TT: $20K for a baby cuz she doesn't trust the quacks at the POS Gen'l

HOUSEWIFE Claire Singh-Kerr borrowed $20,000 to pay for prenatal services and the delivery of her second baby because she does not trust the medical staff at the maternity department of the Port of Spain General Hospital.

Singh-Kerr, 31, of Kelly-Kenny Street, Woodbrook, Port of Spain, said yesterday: "The people at the hospital do not care about patients and when we complain they get mad with us."

She said her husband, Joseph, an estate constable, has to pay $1,000 a month to a bank to clear up the loan.

Singh-Kerr's second baby, Marcus, is now one year and six months old and he is doing well but, she said, "that does not suffice for the loss of my first baby which was due to negligence on the part of the people at the hospital."

She said her baby died from respiratory problems, 30 hours after he was born. A post mortem revealed the baby died from respiratory distress secondary to meconium aspiration (the entry of faeces into the lungs), she said, adding, "If the doctors had listened to me when I told them the baby was one month overdue and I was having some unusual pains, I would not have lost the baby."

Singh-Kerr said when she asked a doctor at the hospital to either induce labour or do a Caesarian section she was told, "The only way we do that is if there is an emergency or something is wrong with the baby."

She said she learned afterwards that she had the right to see a senior doctor at the institution to get a second opinion.

I don't blame Claire at all.