Who’s responsible for breaking this mother’s heart? [Archives:2005/837/Reportage]
By Nadia al-Saqqaf
Yemen Times Staff
What's worse than taking a person's ability to move? What's worse than destroying a mother's life with eternal grief?
Who's responsible for the hundreds of children who became disabled because of the medical system's carelessness?
N.A. told her story to the Yemen Times, and I have nothing but to carry it through to you as she narrated it, and leave it for you to answer the question: who is responsible for breaking this mother's heart? If you think you have an answer or can help, please write to the Yemen Times.
“It was my second pregnancy, I was living in Sana'a with my husband and daughter. I had suffered from emotional problems with my husband and has probably affected my child, I don't know. All I can remember about my son's birth three years ago was that I was dying. I was in labor from 12 midnight to 9 PM the next day. Now I understand that it was an obstructed labor. During delivery I kept telling the attendant in a specialized government hospital that I felt weak and I couldn't push, but they kept waiting. I saw his head come out and go back in more than three times and I was bleeding so much that I was drained. When the baby was eventually born his face looked rather strange, he looked tired himself and his head was somewhat elongated. They cleaned him, rapped him and gave him to me. Two hours later I was on my way home. I didn't know at the time that I should have let someone check the baby to see if he was fine. I thought that since I had come to a hospital, unlike many other Yemeni women, that I had done my role, and I trusted the hospital to know what they were doing. What else should I do? Even when I was telling them to help me they told me I must wait, now I know I should have had a caesarian. Mohammed, my son, was very quiet or rather subdued for the next two months. He would breast feed and he didn't cry at all, he seemed as though he had no energy at all. He couldn't even deposit after digestion and when we probed it through medicine once every ten days or so it smelled like a dead animal. After two months he started crying endlessly, and we realized that his head was hanging rather strange, and his hands was sagging beside him. That is when I started my journey with doctors.
Some doctors said he had shrinkage in the brain, some said he suffered from lack of oxygen, some said something happened during my pregnancy and they didn't know what. No one knew what was wrong with my Mohammed. The Modern German Hospital had a delegation of German doctors last year and when I showed Mohammed to the doctors they said that he could be treated, especially since he was a clever boy. He understood what was going on and he tried to speak, he said some words but couldn't control his limbs. A specialized doctor from Cuba at the Army hospital gave me hope again and said that my son could walk soon if he got the right treatment. I went to Cairo and the doctors there started physiotherapy along with medications but it was so expensive and I couldn't afford staying there for long. I witnessed some improvement but I had to cut short and return home because of money problems. I had filed for a divorce from my husband and I got it finally after one and half years of fighting in court I got it. He wasn't a good husband nor a good father and he doesn't care about his son. All I want is to see my son healthy and what hurts me the most is that I know it is possible, just not in my hands.
If there is anything I would like to tell mothers is to become aware, to learn and read about child health and care and not just depend on the hospitals because the doctors, nurses and all the medical staff may be ignorant or careless. I would advice every pregnant woman to take care of her self and don't just listen to what health practitioners say without consulting. If there is obstructed labor demand a caesarian and don't wait for many hours to decide. And if the child has trouble coming out get a pediatrician to check the baby immediately and put it in intensive care, give it oxygen. I feel so angry thinking if Mohammed had just been cared for by the responsible staff he could have been a healthy baby today. In my journey to seek help for my baby I saw so many other cases of disabled and ill children that could have been prevented. Who's responsible for breaking their mother's hearts?”
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