The Neonatal Tragedy at Mt.

Hope
Baby Christian Vansluytmans Story
This in-depth document is for official purposes only and delves deeply into the minds of the family members to give accounts of exactly what took place in the lead up to their premature babys death. Was it a case of negligence? Did hospital staff look down at the young couple? Or were the complications associated with the babys birth as significant as they tried to make out? Or was it a combination of all?

9/21/2013

Sunday, September 22, 2013

POOR HEALTHCARE, COMPLICATIONS AND NEGLIGENCE: THE CASE OF BABY CHRISTIAN VANSLUYTMAN

Introduction
This document is a compilation of verbal and illustrative evidence prepared by Pearce Robinson in conjunction with the evidence provided by members of the Family. It seeks to bring to light all the issues that the parents, both Chelsea and Ravon faced during the period of their babys birth to the difficult challenges they confronted in the lead up to the babys death. We explore their accounts and examine the pictures they provided and look comprehensively into their suspicion and how it led them to demand action and justice for their baby.

Document Author: Pearce Robinson

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Document Contributions

Article I.

Letter from Family to Demand Independent Pathologist

Article II. Chelsea Vansluytman s (Mother) Account of Event

Article III. Ravon Vansluytman s (Father) Account of Event

Article IV. Sadyann Ali (Chelseas Mother) Account of Event

Article V. Picture Examination and Family Suspicion

A Vote of Thanks: The Rt. Honourable Minister of Health, Dr. Fuad Khan. The Hon. Dr. Amery Browne, MP for Diego Martin Central. Senator The Hon. Faris Al Wari, Attorney At Law. Camille Robinson-Regis, Vice Chairman of PNM, David Guy from Guys Funeral Home.

Document Author: Pearce Robinson

Sunday, September 22, 2013 MINISTRY OF HEALTH Corner Park and Edwards St Port of Spain Trinidad W.I.

Dear Honourable Minister, Dr. Fuad Khan

We are the parents of Christian Thaigo Vansluytman. Our baby, who died on Thursday at Mt. Hope Neonatal Ward, had several injuries which include a broken leg amongst others. On Monday an autopsy has been organized further to assurances made by the Minister of Health for our deceased child. To date we have not been satisfied with how the hospital and staff has treated with our concerns and have been unwilling to provide us any information we had requested, even to this day. We are demanding that during the postmortem examination to determine the true cause of death, we ask that nothing be done until there is an Independent Pathologist and or Independent Doctor to oversee the proceedings. We believe it to be critically important that an independent Doctor be present to satisfy any reliability of findings coming out of the Autopsy on baby Christian Vansluytman. As you would understand, this is a very difficult time for the family and doctors at Mt Hope were telling us everything was fine, until the broken leg that is when everything went downhill. We have in-detail written accounts and times of every single event, including pictures showing progress in tandem with the accounts. In the event that the hospital refuses to allow an independent pathologist and or doctor to be present during the examination, we would petition the Minister of Health, the Honourable Dr. Fuad Khan to have Christian reevaluated, we have serious concerns of bias in this case. Our time at the Mt. Hope was marred by doctors who seemed to be looking down at us instead of trying to help. Not to mention the horrendous healthcare our little baby Christian received. Sincerely Yours,

Chelsea Vansluytman

Ravon Vansluytman

Document Author: Pearce Robinson

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Please see the attached Appendixes of factual Personal Accounts to support our course of action. Inclusive of Pictures:

Document Author: Pearce Robinson

Sunday, September 22, 2013

CHEALSEA VANSLUYTMAN (MOTHER)

PERSONAL ACCOUNTED TIMELINE OF EVENTS:

Thursday 18th July 2013 was the day the baby was born at 12:30 AM breech. He was taken to the Neonatal Ward because he was premature approximately 29 weeks old. He was on a ventilator for about 3 weeks. The 1st week he had the oxygen to help him breathe and within that 1st week he was off the oxygen. By the 2nd week he was being fed for about 3 days and then started bringing back up the breast milk. They had to stop him for about 5days, but they did not say why he was bringing up the breast milk. After the 5 days period, he was feeding. He was being fed for approximately 15 days till he got an infection in his guts known as Necrotizing Enterocolitis (N.E.C) on 17-08-13, which we understand that some premature babies experience in the first week of life. Despite the fact, that it was ever explained to us. They started treating him for the infection but it was not going away. He then also developed an infection in his blood and urine when he got the N.E.C. After 1 week had passed the blood and urine infections were being treated for and it went away within that week.

So from the 24-08-13 till 03-09-13. He was doing really well. On 1-9-13 I went to the neonatal ward to with my husband. We proceeded to change his pampers because his incubator was filthy and dripping with urine and not one of the doctors had cleaned it. As we opened the incubator, our child was up against the other side and Nurse Clarke told us to close the incubator before he falls out or she will have plenty writing to do Everything was going fine until 4:30pm on 04-09-13 when my husband Ravon and I went to the hospital, to hear that Dr. Persad had broken our childs leg. Dr. Persad told us in these exact words that he was going to give your baby a blood transfusion and that he was looking for a vein in the babys right leg, slightly bending the babys leg when the bone snapped. From that moment onwards it was the first time we were told about Osteo Prematurity in Premature Babies. They said that the leg may have been broken due to the babys condition due to the baby not feeding for 18 days. They said that the babys

Document Author: Pearce Robinson

Sunday, September 22, 2013 bone became brittle and could have been easily broken. On the 7-09-13 we were informed that our baby was overdosed with Morphine which made him stop breathing and that they had to administer him with oxygen to help him to continue breathing. On the 14-09-13 he came off the Oxygen and on the following day (15-09-13) we went to see our baby and he was looking fine. However, on the 16-09-13 he went back on the ventilator due to the fact that he had stopped breathing completely.

Thursday 19th September 2013 Just before reaching to the hospital I received a call saying that the baby was in a very critical condition and that I needed to be at the hospital as soon as I possibly could. Just 10 minutes before I arrived I received the phone call. On arrival at 12:00pm having already been on my way I was able to see my baby for exactly 1 hour. While I was there with him he was not moving at all. His eyes were open and he was only frothing from the mouth. The nurse kept coming and cleaning the froth from his mouth and the tube placed in his mouth kept bringing up blood, I found it somewhat strange that the nurse did not call for attention when the baby was obviously in distress. At about 1:00pm the head doctor Dr. Lutchman accompanied by Dr. Maraj came to me saying that she had some bad news about your baby. Earlier that morning the babys heart had stopped beating and they had to give him CPR along with some medications (which were not named) and the baby became stable for a while but, the baby will have more cases where his heart will stop beating.

So when Dr. Lutchman was in the process of asking me if I had any questions regarding our babys condition, Dr. Murry came and knocked on the door and spoke with Dr. Lutchman saying that the baby needed another CPR and that time was around 1:15pm. After that, the doctors told me to hold on outside for a little while. At this point, I told Dr. Maraj that I wanted my baby to be christened before he died. Dr. Maraj then came a little bit later and sent me downstairs to meet with Father Joseph saying that Father Joseph would christen the baby right away. Just minutes before 1:30pm, father joseph and I went into the room that the baby was in

Document Author: Pearce Robinson

Sunday, September 22, 2013 and he made a cross on the babys forehead and said a Prayer and left. As soon as Father Joseph left the room, little baby Christian had passed away at exactly 1:30pm.

Friday 20th September 2013 At 8:30am my family and I went to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex to wait for the autopsy to be done but nobody showed up until 1:00pm that day. They kept giving us a run around stating that the babys body will be here before 12pm. But that was not true, because no one called in the hospital to find out anything until we got the number for the funeral home that had kept the body and they said at around 11:00am the driver had left with the body. When the driver got to the EWMSC we were told that he did not get the babys record on 19-09-13 and no time was given nor did they know if the body was picked up. He said that he had to collect the records and carry it to Port of Spain General Hospital and carry it back up to EWMSC. They then told us to come back on Monday Morning which will be on the 23-09-13 at 7:00am for the autopsy to be done.

RAVON VANSLUYTMAN (FATHER)

PERSONAL ACCOUNTED TIMELINE OF EVENTS:
Thursday 18th July 2013 I found out that I had a baby boy, I was really happy. So that was the day he was born and it was the first time I saw my baby suctioning and Dr. C Allen told my wife and I that my baby was premature so he will have lots of complications, and that the baby will have a honeymoon period which will be good and then the bad which will be sickly. 2 weeks after that our baby started to feed. The baby started to gain weight and was very active. For many days his bed was filthy with urine and blood. His pampers always soaked with urine, I had to intervene and tell them to clean it up immediately. For two weeks with constant reminders from me they had kept it clean and then it went back to a very filthy state. I just couldnt understand why they didnt keep these children in clean environments. Why did I even have to ask?

Document Author: Pearce Robinson

Sunday, September 22, 2013 On the 17-08-13 my wife and I were called into the Mt Hope Medical Sciences Complex and told that our baby had a gut infection and I was told this by Dr. Lutchman. He went on to say that some babies can die from this infection if not treated in the early stages, but your baby was caught in the early stage. If the gases in the gut begin to form holes we will have to perform a surgical operation to correct it Dr. Lutchman explained that due to the gut infection my son could not have been fed for 18 days. So on the 4-09-13 my wife and I went to the hospital at around 4:30pm to hear that our babys leg was broken by Dr. Persad. He briefly explained that as he was attempting to do a blood transfusion, upon lifting the babys leg gently the bone snapped. When I asked him for a copy of the X-Ray he said It is against hospital policy to give you a copy of the X-Ray. On the 7-0913 when I went to the hospital my baby was swollen and was overdosed with morphine and he had stopped breathing so they put him back on oxygen to help him breathe. So from my point of view after his leg was broken everything started to go wrong with the baby. They then sent my wife and I outside along with some other parents due to nurses talking about their personal life and who of amongst them was wearing Victorias underwear. I got very upset and angry seeing my baby in that condition so I started to argue with the staff of the hospital seeking to find out how my babys leg was broken and why a blood transfusion was needed. Yet nobody till this day has explained why my baby needed a blood transfusion; however they did explain to my wife that it could have been as a result of osteo prematurity, although that was the first time any of them even bothered to explain to us what that even meant, we had to search it up on the internet. In an angry way I said to the doctors present that Allyuh using my child as a lab rat The nurse I was talking to started smiling when I said that. They then told me because You are getting on, we do not want to speak with you about your baby and they then proceeded to call security to put me out of the hospital. They then told me that I would not be able to come back into the Neonatal Ward to see my baby. After they told me that, I started to calm down and they talked to both of us and Dr said that There was fluid under the skin that is what causes the swelling. I had a problem with that explanation because they never told us what caused the swelling and why there was so much fluid under the skin that had the baby so swollen. From my understanding, I think that when the babys leg was bro ken, the body started to swell and he was getting worse not to mention being overdosed with morphine which caused him to stop breathing. I looked at my son and he was fighting to stay alive so I believed he was going to survive and when I got the call that my baby was critical I was worried. After about 15 Minutes after I received a call from my wife stating that my child had died. I was in doubt I could not believe what I was being told. It is only when my wife started to cry that I believed it to be true. The first time I held my son in my arms is when he was dead. Then the doctor told me that my baby was dying weeks before and

Document Author: Pearce Robinson

Sunday, September 22, 2013 that it is because he had air in his liver. But this was the very first time I heard this, only when my child was dead. The Dr. Persad who broke my sons leg was only seen once after the incident and that was by my wife Chelsea and when he saw her he quickly left the hospital. I told the nurses that if I saw him I would lick him down only out of anger and then they told us that Dr. Persad is not a part of the hospital; he just comes to help out sometimes but this is totally different from what they told us in the beginning that he was a Senior Doctor at Mt. Hope who was trying to do the blood transfusion and that the Head Nurse Clarke oversaw the entire thing. So why has this story changed so many times? From the beginning to end we had so many different variations from the doctors as to what happened which raised our suspicion. I believe that the child fell with them and they started to cover it up. If you look at the pictures that we will attach to this document, you will see just how bad he ended up from how good he was before. Even his nose looked broken, with an excessively swollen head and on his left foot a piece of his toe was missing. On his right heel there was a deep cut with the skin deeply broken and his left hand was severely burnt from the excessive administering of IV.

Many days we had to leave without getting an update after having been there for hours on end. The wait to get information and to even hear anything about our childs condition was unbearable. Especially because we had to travel from Patna Village in Diego Martin. There was a day when Head Nurse Clarke wanted to shut down the entire ward because she said too many parents were using the paper towels to dry their hands after washing it. So she threatened to shut down the entire ward and deny parents entrance to see their children as a result. We were never taken seriously as parents and that is what hurts the most. We were not allowed to take any pictures at all, but of course I insisted then we were told that we needed to get a permission slip from downstairs. So we had to wait until the next day before my wife Chealsea got the paper stating that she could take the pictures. She needed to get the signature of Head Nurse Clarke and when she went to give it to her. Nurse Clarke hesitated for quite a while and was reluctant to sign the document it was only under pressure that she signed it reluctantly and I said to Chelsea that the only reason she reacted in that way is because they knew what they did.

Document Author: Pearce Robinson

Sunday, September 22, 2013

SADYANN ALI (CHEALSEAS MOTHER)

BRIEF ACCOUNT & TIMELINE OF EVENTS:

Thursday 18th July at 12:30am was the day that Christian Vansluytman was born of Chelsea and Ravon. I wanted to go and see my grandson but was told that I could not go in to see my daughters new born baby, because only the babys mother and father were allowed in to the ward to see the child. Of course I was upset and relied squarely on updates from Ravon, Chelsea and Doctors at Mt Hope Neonatal Ward.

Thursday 19th September I got a hysterical phone call from my daughter that she wants me to come to the hospital immediately and that something was wrong with Christian and that he was in a critical condition, meaning that his heart had stopped beating. They told her that. When I got to the hospital at exactly 2:00pm she told me the baby was dead. They took us into the room and when I saw the baby his whole entire body was black from head to toe in half an hour time his whole body was black as if he was poisoned or something. There was also the issue with the body being picked up on Thursday and no documents being given to the driver who picked up the body at the neonatal ward at EWMSC and they transported the body to Friendly Society (Funeral Home). One nurse who was speaking to Chelsea offered to immediately cremate the baby and I interjected into the conversation and told her NO because we wanted Christians body for a family funeral. We found it strange. But perhaps its an offer that is usually given to all parents?

PICTURE EXAMINATION AND VANSLUYTMAN SUSPICION

This picture was taken approximately two weeks after Christian was born and then transferred into the incubator. You can see how skinny he is.

Document Author: Pearce Robinson

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Sunday, September 22, 2013

This photo was taken the day before they discovered that Christian had a gut infection. But you can see that he had gained some weight.

This photo is as Dr. Persad broke his leg and how the doctors bandaged it up. They said they were waiting for the bone specialists to see if there was a way they could save his foot.

The IV Access that the doctors were supposed to put in his leg, they ended up putting it into his head and his face then started to swell up.

Document Author: Pearce Robinson

11

Sunday, September 22, 2013

This photo is after they administered Christian with too much morphine and he had stopped breathing and was put back on the machine to keep him alive.

THE FOLLOWING IMAGES ARE OF A DEAD CHRISTIAN VANSLUYTMAN. PLEASE BE ADVISED

Christians nasal passage looks broken. His left nostril has collapsed to an extent. This arrow shows how badly his mouth was bruised and ripped. The back of his calf has totally burnt away

His heel on his left foot

The entire foot was bandaged at this stage. It appears that his right leg was much worse than previously thought.

almost looks as if it is

a stab wound. It is a
very deep wound.

Document Author: Pearce Robinson

12

Sunday, September 22, 2013

His entire arm is bruised with dry blood and deep broken cuts along his arm and by his wrist

You can clearly see that the child died in discomfort and his mouth is bruised and
His left arm is almost completely burnt away until you can see flesh with heavy dark bruises

ripped up. His nose is lopsided and broken and body is swollen

FAMILY SUSPICIONS

THAT THE BABY FELL WITH DR. PERSAD THE DOCTORS TRIED TO COVER IT UP THAT DOCTORS NEEDED TO BE MORE CAREFUL DOCTORS OVERDOSED HIM WITH MORPHINE DOCTORS FAR MORE CONCERNED WITH GOSSIP FAR TOO MUCH IV TREATMENT

Document Author: Pearce Robinson

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Sunday, September 22, 2013

Why the Baby was Born Premature and How Doctors at Mt. Hope Dealt with the Matter. [From the Mother]:

On the 4-6-13 that was the night that my water bag burst around 11:30 and 12 and arrived at hospital at 1am. They admitted me in the hospital for a week, during that week they monitored my water bag to see how much fluid it had for the baby. It so happened that the water bag had filled back up so they discharged me on 12-6-13. On the 2-7-13 I went for an ultra sound and they admitted me saying that there was little fluid for the baby. So I had to stay for the doctors to monitor me until labour.

CONCLUSION:

From a cursory point of view and from the evidence provided and explored. We are able to see from the perspective of the family; why they have suspicions in the case of Baby Christian Vansluytman. Given the somewhat, reasoned rationale in the explanation by some of the doctors. Trust in their explanations was marred by regular shifts in stories and reasons for the babys death and their unwillingness to provide information upon request. Further to that, the fact that there was a dismal lack of information further confounded the already challenging situation for the family. Family suspicions around the issue are 1. That the baby may have fallen and doctors sought to cover it up. 2. That doctors administered far too much Morphine and IV to the baby and 3. That doctors showed a callous disregard for the health and safety of the children in the ward.

Document Author: Pearce Robinson

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