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MANDEVILLE, Manchester - The Mandeville Regional Hospital seems to be rocked once again by the 'disappearance' of another baby's body from the morgue at the health facility.
A St Elizabeth couple - Ian and Rolanda Bald - have claimed that since their newborn's death at the hospital in July last year they have not been able to get the body from the morgue.
The Mandeville Regional Hospital
Senior hospital officials were only made aware of the case when the Observer called the hospital last Friday.
Hospital CEO Alwin Miller said Monday that his office was unaware of the matter. "I was just advised. so I can't speak to whether it is true or not," said Miller.
"Since we've received information, we've started preliminary investigations but I can't speak until I have discussions with the parents, my regional authority and my ministry," the hospital CEO told the Observer.
The latest claim at the Mandeville Hospital comes amid a probe into the mysterious disappearance of a newborn's body from the hospital's morgue in February.
Health Minister Ruddy Spencer, following a meeting with the morgue attendants who were interdicted after the incident, their union and the hospital's management, said a decision on the fate of the workers would be made in another two weeks, as requested by the trade union.
According to the Balds, the body of their baby boy went missing from the morgue on July 30, 2008, after doctors advised them that they had pronounced the baby dead. They said their son died just two days after he was transferred from the Black River Hospital.
The couple told the Observer yesterday that the hospital had not been able to produce the baby's body or give them word as to where it was, despite several visits to the morgue.
Ian Bald said his wife, Rolanda, had checked in to have her baby at the Black River Hospital in St Elizabeth. But just hours after his birth on July 28, 2008, they were advised that the child had to be transferred to the Mandeville Hospital for what doctors later told them were "breathing complications". He said that two days later he received an 'urgent call' from a doctor at the Mandeville Hospital, who told them to visit the hospital immediately as the baby was seriously ill and could possibly die.
"I was shocked. I was in the middle of downtown Black River, shopping for my wife who was still in hospital after having the baby. I was taking care of her there, so couldn't just drop everything, but the doctor insisted," said Bald. But he said that within an hour he received another call from the hospital, saying the baby, which was born premature at eight months, had died.
"They couldn't tell us why. All they said was that eight-month babies don't usually live. 'If the baby is born seven months or nine months, yes, they will live but not eight months.'
"They told us later that it was some breathing complication why they had to transfer him to Mandeville hospital," Bald told the Observer.
Ian Bald said two days later he and his wife travelled to the Mandeville Hospital, but were not allowed to see the body of their baby.
"We spoke to the doctor at the hospital and he said he had a death certificate to sign, but we had to identify the body first. We couldn't get the death certificate unless the body was identified, so we went to the hospital's morgue."
They said that they were not allowed to go inside the morgue as the attendant who was supposed to give them the go-ahead was at lunch. They said that they waited for hours and eventually got fed up and left.
On two subsequent trips to the morgue, they said they were told that the baby's body could not be found and so they left their contact numbers, as requested by the hospital.
More than one year later they are still waiting on the telephone call from the hospital.
"I made sure to call them again on July 28 - when the child would have been one year old. I can't remember the name of the doctor I spoke to, but he said they would have to go and open the docket again and call me back, but up to now, they haven't called us," said Ian Bald.
The couple said they decided to go public after they were still unable to get answers from the hospital at the end of last month.
The Balds said they had trusted the hospital to call them back in the early days, but as time went by his wife, a Canadian citizen, had to travel out of the country and time did not allow them to deal with the issue.
Hospital CEO Alwin Miller said the parents should have come in to the hospital and made a report. "They're making a claim, it would be useful for them to come in and speak with us and let us take it from there."
Health ministry officials, meanwhile, said it appeared that the couple never "requested the body".
Rolanda Bald said nobody at the hospital told them anything about making a formal request for the baby. "We don't even have a death certificate. Remember, we couldn't get it because we could not identify the baby's body, because we couldn't get into the morgue; why didn't anybody tell us about a (formal) request? We went to get our baby's body," she said.
She told the Observer on Monday that her husband had finally received a call from the hospital, shortly after the Observer reporter had called the CEO's office. "We just received a call from them asking us to come in on Thursday," she said.
She said, however, that she was not confident that they would receive their baby's body.
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