Abandoned COVID-19 patient delivers
A COVID-19 positive expectant mother in Sekondi-Takoradi, supposedly abandoned because of her circumstances, has been delivered of a healthy baby.
The asymptomatic patient had reported in the morning of last Friday at the regular antenatal clinic of a mission facility, but two doctors on duty and the nurses abandoned her without a word when they linked her to her folder.
Advertisement
It turned out that she was a contract traced to an earlier positive case, and the details of her condition were contained in her folder at the antenatal clinic without her knowledge.
It was only in the evening, after more than seven hours wait when other staff informed the Western Regional Heath Directorate of her condition, that she received attention.
She was transported to the Western Regional Referral Hospital, Effia-Nkwanta, where she was successfully delivered of the baby at the weekend and is currently being taken care of by a team of paediatric specialists who are guiding her to manage herself and the child.
Safe delivery
Dr Eric Mensah, an obstetrician and gynaecologist who led the team to deliver the woman of her baby, told the Daily Graphic that the woman’s pregnancy was even more than the stipulated nine months.
“Since she was post-date, her pregnancy was induced and it went well, so she went into labour and we delivered. The mother is fine, and the baby is also fine,” he said.
“I must say that the mother and baby are currently fine in isolation; she could not be allowed to self-isolate at home because she was sharing apartment with someone,” he added.
Dr Mensah said the team that took care of the woman, including the paediatricians, would receive the best of care.
COVID status
Independent checks indicated that the woman was a well known client of the facility where she attended antenatal clinic, and was said to have started receiving her antenatal services long before she tested positive for COVID-19.
A source at the facility confirmed that “the woman was a client of the health facility and was traced as a contact of another person who had tested positive at Kwesimintsim”.
It said after that the woman was contacted and she also tested positive, and it is indicated in her antenatal book that she “was pregnant, had tested positive to COVID-19 and was asymptomatic”.
It said the doctors and nurses on duty, however, failed to attend to her until a director of the facility intervened later in the day when the issue was brought to his attention.
“The said director who was not happy with the behaviour of the health personnel rushed to the health directorate to seek help for the woman,” the source said.
Dr Mensah said the woman was presented as an asymptomatic patient — meaning she did not show any symptoms of COVID-19.
“She did not know or understand why we were holding her so we took our time to educate her and she cooperated and it all went well,” he indicated.
Unfair
The medical team reportedly did not attend to the expectant mother due to the increasing cases of COVID-19 in the Western Region, which stood at 421 confirmed cases, with the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis accounting for more than 150 cases.