She had a perfect pregnancy and a perfect plan for delivery but tonight 19 year Cenaida Raymundo is living a nightmare. Her newborn baby boy is on a ventilator at the KHMH and listed in critical condition. But her nightmare began a week ago at the Punta Gorda Town Hospital. Cenaida and her husband travelled from their home across the Moho River by boat in order to be at the hospital on time. She arrived eleven pm last week Monday and went into labour on Tuesday night. And even though she was in a hospital, Cenaida says she had to deliver her four and a half pound baby by herself because though she was screaming for help – no one - neither a doctor nor a nurse came to her aid.
Cenaida Raymundo, Mother
“I am yelling at them and saying the baby will born the baby will born, three or four times loud, and they were not listening to me.”
Keith Swift,
You were screaming.
Cenaida Raymundo,
“Yes screaming and then they…and then I screamed again saying
the baby was born and nobody listened to me still. I screamed like four times again loud and loud as I can before I saw my baby born and he looked black and he had the umbilical cord around his neck. Nobody came still.”
Keith Swift,
You actually delivered this baby on your own?
Cenaida Raymundo,
“Yes on my own and then I screamed still and finally the nurses came. They weren’t running, they were walking at normal speed. They finally reached and they told me why I wasn’t on the bed. I told them my baby is dying and they asked me where was the bay born and I said on the bed. They said why did I get off the bed and I told them because my baby is dying now and then they just watched and said hmm; they were worried about the mess – not the baby but about the mess.”
The newborn baby -who didn’t have a time of delivery since it was self-delivered - was in trouble. It wasn’t until Cenaida’s common-law husband Andy Jones arrived that the hospital realized that the baby needed more help and attention than the staff were giving.
Cenaida Raymundo,
“The baby looked in a bad condition and they told me to breastfeed the baby but the baby couldn’t be breastfeed because he couldn’t suck and then they just watched my baby like everything was alright. And then my husband asked what’s going on with my baby and then he started to interrogate and he started to go back and forth and asking what is going on and then he asked me what’s going on and I told him what happened and then he started to put everything together and he told the nurses that that means my baby could be brain damaged and then from there they started to put everything together and they sent us immediately to Dangriga.”
The baby was taken to the Southern Regional Hospital in Dangriga on Wednesday. But once there, his condition only worsened and an already terrible situation was made disastrous by a series of complications – including a broken down ambulance:
Cenaida Raymundo,
“It got worse. It just kept getting worse and worse and so they took an ultrasound and they said that the baby had brain damage but they didn’t want to tell us, the doctor said the baby is okay. And then afterwards the next doctor reached who did the ultrasound and he said the baby had brain damage.
The doctor said they didn’t have no ventilators but if somebody dies they will have some. So my husband asked if we had to pray for somebody to die so we get a ventilator because they didn’t have any and they just said.
From Dangriga they sent us to Belize and then the ambulance broke down maybe like three minutes after it left and then from there the ambulance didn’t have any phone on them and then he had to stop cars for them to call to Belize City and tell them whta6 happened. Lucky for we, an ambulance from PG was there and they were taking a patient to Dangriga.”
And that brings us to today where the baby is in a critical condition at the KHMH.
Cenaida Raymundo,
“He is in a critical condition. Any minute he could die. Right now they are trying to put some medicine on him for his heart to beat more normal but then the baby has a chance that he will die any minute now.”
Keith Swift,
This must be so hard for you.
Cenaida Raymundo,
“It is really hard. I asked God to give me the strength so I’ll be able to handle whenever the baby dies.”
Keith Swift,
And they said that even if the baby survives, he might have brain damage.
Cenaida Raymundo,
“Yes he will have brain damaged and he will paralyzed or something. He won’t be able to move. He won’t be able to do nothing. We will have to care of him for the rest of his life.”
And so that is where we are tonight – the baby boy who completes his first week tonight is critical and his family is livid. The baby’s father Andy Jones has written an angry and emotional letter to both the media and the Prime Minister. We tried to contact someone from the hospital or the Ministry of Health but were unsuccessful. The couple has a 2 year old daughter and they are both farmers. And despite their ordeal – they have mounting medical bills. Anyone able to assist can contact Cenaida at the KHMH or her common-law husband Andy Jones at 669-4969. We’ll keep following up on the child’s condition.
In an inexplicable turn, according to some new media policy at the KHMH, we were not allowed to videotape the newborn, though we had the mother’s consent to do so.
