JUBILEE AGEN

Anastasia Cunningham, Senior Gleaner Writer

Ryan Perry visited the Victoria Jubilee Hospital (VJH) in Kingston yesterday with mixed emotions. He was happy he would finally be able to take home his baby daughter, but his heart was heavy with sadness as the mother of his child and love of his life was still lying in her hospital bed, slipping in an out of a coma.

Ryan’s greatest desire was to take them both home today so they could enjoy the happy occasion together. But his hope for that day is now hanging in the balance.

The 28-year-old father was yesterday awash with emotions – happy at the birth of his daughter, yet distraught, puzzled, angry, but more than anything, uncertain of the fate of his common-law wife.

Last week Wednesday, when he took 23-year-old Tashamna Martin to the Victoria Jubilee Hospital at 2 a.m. to give birth to her third child, they did not imagine that a joyous affair would turn into a nightmare.

Called in panic

A few hours after being admitted, Tashamna went into labour. She called for assistance but none came. In panic, she called Ryan, who had returned home to stay with their other two children.

“She said a nurse was there and she beg the nurse some water and the nurse tell her she soon come, but the nurse never come back,” her common-law husband said.

After agonising through the contractions, Martin could no longer stop the baby from coming and, by 10 a.m., all on her own, she gave birth to a baby girl on the bed in the hospital ward.

There was still no one in sight so she sat there alone, in pain, bleeding, looking down at her daughter covered in blood, her heart still in panic. She called Ryan.

“She say she just have baby and no one not there to help her. I tell her someone soon come, but she say no one not coming because she there how long and them nuh come back all now. After a while she stop talk, like she black out,” he told The Gleaner.

Ryan said he rushed from his Vineyard Town home in St Andrew to the hospital, arriving approximately 10:30 a.m., but he was not allowed access because it wasn’t visiting hours. He had to return later in the evening at 4:30 p.m.

“She was lying in bed, very weak and could hardly talk. The baby was OK, but Tashamna never look right and she say she don’t feel too good. She just keep saying she don’t like the feeling she have. I said it to the nurse and she say she will keep a close eye on her,” he said.

He disclosed that Martin was so weak she couldn’t drink the cranberry juice he had brought; he had to hold her up to sip a little through a straw.

Slipped into coma

Perry said by 3 a.m. the next day, he got a call that Martin had slipped into a coma and had to be put on a machine. He got there by 5 a.m. and was taken to see her.

“When I saw her, she never respond to me. She call me name one time and she don’t say anything more. She get an injection and she start to scream. After a minute, she stop scream and not talking, then them put on a drip on her,” he said.

He said later that day the doctor told him although she was in a coma, her condition was stable. He was also told that they had attempted to give her a blood transfusion, but her body wasn’t accepting it.

“By Thursday evening, they say they have to make some decision because her body is in a serious condition because they don’t think she can go a next day without blood. Them say her blood count (haemoglobin level) drop to one when it should be 14,” he shared.

She later got the transfusion.

Still unresponsive

Yesterday he was told her haemoglobin level was up to 5.9, but she was still unresponsive.

“The doctor say she make a little bit of improvement, but them just don’t know when she will recover,” said the taxi driver.

“I don’t want to think about losing her. I am just hoping she will recover. We are going to get married this year. Right now I can’t sleep, me upset, worried, puzzled. I don’t know how this coulda happen. Somebody need to tell me how this coulda happen.”

When questioned on the matter, Lyttleton ‘Tanny’ Shirley, chairman of the South East Regional Health Authority, which has responsibility for the Victoria Jubilee Hospital, told The Gleaner yesterday: “I have asked for a full investigation of the matter, which is probably going to take some detailed time because I am sending an independent team down there.”

As to Martin’s existing condition, he said: “I know she is being treated based on preliminary information asked. There are some challenges in the treatment process, but I know she is fully being attended to. I can’t elaborate further than that at this time.”

[email protected]