Earlier today, we brought you a Portugese husband’s claims on how his Nigerian wife died during her cesarean section at the Medical Art Center (MART) in Lagos (HERE).
Well, the hospital has reacted to the viral reports, and have revealed the true facts. Read Below the mail sent out to blogger:
The True Facts about the Treatment and Management of Chiamaka De Freitas at MART Medicare
It is with heavy hearts that the management of the MART Group
empathize with the husband, family and friends of Chiamaka De Freitas
over this unfortunate and tragic loss of their daughter, mother and wife
approximately 48 hours after a C-Section surgery. In 4 years of
existence this is the first ever mortality case experienced by the MART
Medicare.
As a maternity unit with zero tolerance for maternal morbidity,
mortality and perinatal mortality, we put in place that all our
patient’s care are consultant led. Two consultants Ob/Gyn are always in
attendance for surgeries, including consultant anesthetist, pediatrician
and world class perioperative nurses for any surgery.
Chiamaka was so precious to us that her history dates back to when
she was trying to conceive 3 years ago and successfully underwent IVF at
Medical Art Center, she conceived and continued her antenatal care with
us.
When Chiamaka didn’t show up for her regular antenatal classes at 37
weeks in the hospital, the consultants were concerned. They contacted
her at week 39, at this time she told them that she was out of town and
will attend when she gets back. When she presented herself at 41 weeks,
the doctors had to carry out another assessment.
After further evaluations it was discovered that there was a very low volume of amniotic fluid left for baby’s survival.
It is at this point they informed her husband that the baby will have
to be delivered by caesarean section, but he was hell bent on his wife
having a normal vaginal delivery. He insisted on his wife having
induction of labour despite the above facts. Mr. De Freitas was
counseled and persuaded to see reasons why a C-section was a necessity
instead of vaginal delivery which would have been very RISKY if not
IMPOSSIBLE.
He finally yielded and allowed the Medicare surgeons operate on her
after signing a written consent which explicitly stated that other
additional procedures may be necessary and he was present at the
surgery.
During the operation it was discovered that the umbilical cord was
tightly wrapped round the baby boy’s neck TWICE. This is usually an
ominous sign. But for the expert skill displayed by the medical team the
baby could have been ‘still born’.
The delivery was a success even though the baby came out wrinkled,
pale and one arm white from short of blood supply and stress in the
womb.
It is standard practice at MART Medicare that before any patient goes
in for surgery, they will NOT have anything to eat or drink (Nil per
oral) 12 hours prior to the surgery. This means the patient fasts for
12hours before and 12hours after any surgery.
Thereafter, patients can have sips of water bit by bit with close
observation after bowel movement has been observed. 18 hours
post-surgery, the patient walked from the recovery room to her private
room in high spirit and communicating well with her husband and other
family members.
It must be noted that Mr. De Frietas requested to be left alone with
his wife to “enjoy the moment of joy” for a period of time. It struck
some of the medical staff as weird that Mr. De Freitas was offering his
young wife “Jack Daniels and Coca” during this traumatic period as he
kept insisting that the medical team leave her private room.
During a routine patient checkup, the husband was found massaging her
abdomen which is contraindicated for a patient that just had surgery.
Approximately 36hrs after the baby was born, one of our doctors found
the patient to be pale and in some measure of pain. The consultants
managed the pain duly.
Routine blood tests were done and results confirmed that her blood
levels were low. With the consent of her husband, Chiamaka was
immediately transfused with blood (2 pints initially, and a further 2
pints of blood and 2 pints of fresh frozen plasma made available as soon
as it was required).
Based on her clinical state, our experienced consultants thought it
prudent to go back in to explore the possibility of any internal
bleeding, so they performed a sub umbilical midline incision for a
proper exploration.
No active bleeding was found neither in the abdomen nor in the pelvis
and the uterus was well contracted, although, a concealed haematoma was
found behind the bladder.
When surgeons encounter this type of blood clot, the global medical
standard operating procedure is to adopt a conservative management
approach by not touching the blood clot and treat the patient with blood
transfusion ONLY. Mr. De Freitas at this time seemed more concerned
about the scars that will form on his wife than in the life saving work
the consultants were doing.
She came out of the second surgery very alert and was conversing with her husband and he offered her his support and comfort.
Over 8 hours after the exploratory surgery and 48hrs after she delivered
her bouncing baby boy, Chiamaka passed on despite all our best efforts.
The loss of this 24-year-old wife, mother and daughter is painful to us
at Mart Medicare. Observing due diligence, it was suggested to Mr. De
Freitas that he could carry out the autopsy at a hospital of his choice
and he chose a government hospital in Lagos. The autopsy also confirmed
our original findings at the second surgery of ‘concealed heamatoma’
behind the bladder.
Mart Medicare is a Gold Standard medical organization, this means
that we don’t just meet the “benchmark” we surpass it. All our medical
staff have been extensively trained both home and abroad. Mart Medicare
is the one of the few hospital where you will always have 2 consultant
surgeons in attendance during any given procedure.
MART Medicare has successfully birthed quite a number of 26 weeks old
premature babies of 800gms and with our highly skilled expertise and
modern equipment. We have delivered sets of quintuplet, quadruplet,
triplet, twin and singletons. All this, with glowing praise and no
single mishap.
Again our heartfelt condolences to Mr. De Freitas and her family.