Post by liyahsmum on Jan 23, 2009 18:49:07 GMT -5
My baby girl Li-yah Dyami Hapai (which means when the sun rises in the meadow, an eagle soars) was born at 23 weeks and 6 days on the 12th of April 2006. She died in my husband and I’s arms 10 hours later.
The post-mortem said she died from extreme prematurity, secondary to a massive and overwhelming e-coli infection.
The inquest officer decided not to proceed with an inquest, due to the post mortem coming back as a ‘natural’ death. I believe that at the time of this decision not enough information was supplied to the inquest officer. In this case nothing was natural about the fact that my daughter was born early or the reason for her death. It had no reason to happen that way and was the result of a bewildering mess of very unnatural reasons.
After a natural holistic pregnancy and home water birth of my son Dante, I was unable to conceive again and my husband and I began an infertility program using the ovulation-induction drug Clomid. At this time I was under the gynaecological care of Dr. Enrique Tomeu. His treatment was initially problem free, and I conceived Li-yah on my third Clomid cycle.
I kept my midwife from my first pregnancy. This pregnancy also proceeded naturally. I was a little underweight (54kg), and suffered from moderate morning sickness. Our family first heard Li’s heartbeat at 10 weeks, strong and early.
My husband and I work as event promoters. On the 21st of January, 2006, we hosted a national DJ at a local night venue. I was 13 week pregnant at this stage. I worked on the door that night, taking tickets and assessing intoxication. I consumed no alcohol or drugs, except for a half glass of wine before closing. This was after the accident I am about to mention.
At 2am on the 21st I walked down the driveway to the back of the club to my car with a male friend to get my jacket. At the car we heard a thud, but nightclubs are noisy and we didn’t think anything of it. We turned back down the driveway and half-way back I fell over a picnic table that a drunken patron had thrown over a fenced in smoking area at the back of the club. I landed on my hands and stomach over the sharp legs of the table. I grazed my hand but had no other immediate injuries.
We went home to bed and at 5am I woke up to find that I was soaked in blood.
At the hospital they logged it as a threatened miscarriage and not as an accident. This has caused huge problems in itself. During my stay in hospital I asked for an ACC form to be filled out but apparently this was never done. The club also delayed reporting the accident until after Li’s death, causing further problems with OSH.
A huge haematoma had formed between the bag of waters and my uterus, most likely as a result of my sharp and jolting fall. A scan two days earlier had been perfect.
I spent weeks in hospital on and off with complete bed rest at home. Li-yah stayed alive. Dr. Tomeu didn’t care anymore and just waited for her to die. He made that disgustingly obvious to us on several occasions, and repeatedly refused to source help for my other medical and pregnancy needs. I dropped to 46kg at 4 months pregnant due to the stress. I asked for a dietary consult. He said it was unnecessary. He told me I shouldn’t bother with bed rest and should run around to bring on a miscarriage. My nurse had to sneak in protein drinks because he forbade them. He stood outside my room and loudly said to hospital staff that he didn’t understand why I was upset as I could always have another baby (I have since had a hysterectomy) He said to ultrasound staff that he wished I would hurry up and ‘abort’ the baby. He said it was obvious I was mental and didn’t deserve a baby.
I requested a change in obstetrician.
At 17 weeks bloody water rushed down my legs. Knowing my waters had broken we rushed to the emergency room. My new doc wasn’t on, and I had a panic attack when the nurse told me Mr Tomeu was the only ob/gyn there. He walked in and I told him what had happened. I also brought my soaking pyjama pants in with me. I told him that the leaking seemed to have stopped. He checked me with a speculum but didn’t test for amniotic fluid. He attended a scan with my husband and I, which showed my waters had leaked to a dangerous level.
Li-yah was still alive.
He turned around, shrugged and said to me ‘it’s going to die anyway’ and walked out of the room. I was sent home with no treatment, breaking the Ministry of Health and the hospital’s guidelines for dealing with pre 20 weeks Premature Rupture of Membranes, which says anti-biotics need to be administered by IV immediately to prevent infection.
A few days later a new scan showed my waters had resealed and the liquor had built back up. My new doc put me on the antibiotic Amoxicillin in case of infection. The strain of e-coli Li-yah and I later contracted was resistant to Amoxicillin based antibiotics.
It is my lay opinion that either an infected piece of the rotting haematoma may have snuck in when my waters burst at 17 weeks and created Li-yah’s infection.
I went into early labour at 23 weeks and was admitted again to the hospital’s maternity ward. I was given anti-labour drugs and steroids for her lungs. This didn’t stop the slow labour process, probably because the infection had already taken hold and was slowly rotting out my bag of water. I also developed mastitis, very unusual before birth and early in the pregnancy, but probably because I already had e-coli. The hospital put me on antibiotics, but the wrong ones, the night before I was sent to a larger specialist maternity unit in another town.
At Queen Mary they immediately checked for infection and discovered the resistant e-coli. I was put on the right antibiotics but it was too late, I was already in labour.
My waters broke the next evening when I was going to the toilet. Carl had returned to our home town for the night and I was alone at the time. The call bell was too far away for me to reach. I was screaming in pain and unable to move as the huge haematoma pressed down to get out, as it had been sitting right above the dilating cervix. The broken waters were green and brown, and I was panicking.
Li-yah was born the next morning at 10.30, weighing in at a tiny 590 grams.
Initially she did well. 7 hours after she was born, we were called to the Neo-natal unit. Her blood ph and the level of infection were beyond the point of no return. She had already sustained fatal brain damage with the acidic blood. We could pump her blood through a machine but it may not work and if it did she would be a ‘vegetable’. God I hate that word!
We held her in our arms, had her blessed by a Maori elder. Cried, shook, begged the gods to magically make our precious baby better. Of course it didn’t happen.
At last we consented to the doctors giving her a shot of morphine, and turning off her ventilator. I held her mouth to my lips as she drew her last breath.
We kept her in our room until the police came and took her away for an autopsy. My husband had to go down later in the day and demand her back after the post-mortem. While her autopsy was unavoidable under the circumstances, it goes against our Maori beliefs to have the body opened and the placenta sampled. Everything must be returned to the earth. Because the next day was Easter Sunday, her body would have laid by itself in the mortuary till the end of the weekend. My husband stood over the nurses and the cops till he got our baby back 4 minutes before the mortuary closed. I’m so proud of him for that.
I was in emotional shock and also nearly dying from the E-coli infection that had passed to me in labour. It took us 2 days to get back to our home town. We kept her in our home for a week. I dressed her, made her bed, and held her. I wished I could keep her forever. My husband was very concerned that I would totally lose it when I handed her over to the cremator, but I didn’t.
Her ashes are in a beautiful tiny wooden chest in our home, with her wee tiny clothes, hats, and the dolls and teddies I bought her. I talk to her every day. I know she watches over me, and my son. My son is a crystal child and talks to her all the time. He gives me messages from her. He will go and stand in front of her ashes and caress her teddies and tell her how much he loves her. It breaks my heart. He was only 3 when she died.
After she died we went to the Occupational Safety & Health dept to chase up the fall as a workplace accident. OSH did an investigation and concluded that
1. The driveway was private and not a public thoroughfare (that’s why it has signs on it pointing the public down the driveway to other restaurants and bars!!!! Also, as hired by the DJ to represent him at the venue, I was staff that night and was entitled to park in the car park)
2. That it was an unforeseen event that a pregnant woman would fall at that time of night over a picnic table so it wasn’t the clubs’ fault. (Uh huh... so that is why there was a work order on the managers’ desk to fix the lighting? What if someone else walked down there and got killed by the flying table? What’s the difference? There were also no bouncers patrolling the back smoking area or checking the driveway & car park. The bar manager had also disappeared for an hour to take an E with his mates, and when he finally got back Carl and I informed him of the accident. He laughed at us. He also never filled out an OSH report until after her death, which is a law breach in itself)
OSH told us to go to the Police and lay a complaint against the specific person who threw the table (as if anyone knew who that was months later!) We went to the police and made a full complaint. The Police checked the post mortem report and said since it was an explained death there was no need to investigate.
Li-yah was a precious baby for an infertile couple who had done their best to keep their unborn baby alive against very huge odds. She was also my last child, due to more complications causing a hysterectomy.
Not long after I started investigating Mr Tomeu. I am a journalism degree student, and found out his US history & alerted the media. I then found out about Ella, and in the same week Ella’s mum Felicity and I both made a complaint to the Health and Disability Commissioner regarding his treatment of us and our children. The more I uncovered the more horrified I was.
Complaints by us and others lodged with the hospital were refuted, denied, covered up. Mr Tomeu falsified not only Ella’s circumstances but mine as well, providing answers to our complaints which were blatantly incorrect, but the hospital believed him.
The HDC came back to say that in an expert opinion, Li-yah was doomed from the time of the haematoma. Since this occurred in the 3 hours following the fall, surely there is no coincidence. Li-yah’s death was the result of an accident that caused me, and therefore her, an injury, which caused an infection which almost killed me and did kill her. It is no accident at any level.
The club’s management laughed.
OSH said no, not the club, despite the venue having serious safety issues for staff and patrons.
The Police said no.
The Doctor said not me.
The hospital says nothing ever happened.
I will never stop fighting for justice for my baby. We had a perfectly normal, precious, so so SO wanted baby. This never EVER needed to happen.
The post-mortem said she died from extreme prematurity, secondary to a massive and overwhelming e-coli infection.
The inquest officer decided not to proceed with an inquest, due to the post mortem coming back as a ‘natural’ death. I believe that at the time of this decision not enough information was supplied to the inquest officer. In this case nothing was natural about the fact that my daughter was born early or the reason for her death. It had no reason to happen that way and was the result of a bewildering mess of very unnatural reasons.
After a natural holistic pregnancy and home water birth of my son Dante, I was unable to conceive again and my husband and I began an infertility program using the ovulation-induction drug Clomid. At this time I was under the gynaecological care of Dr. Enrique Tomeu. His treatment was initially problem free, and I conceived Li-yah on my third Clomid cycle.
I kept my midwife from my first pregnancy. This pregnancy also proceeded naturally. I was a little underweight (54kg), and suffered from moderate morning sickness. Our family first heard Li’s heartbeat at 10 weeks, strong and early.
My husband and I work as event promoters. On the 21st of January, 2006, we hosted a national DJ at a local night venue. I was 13 week pregnant at this stage. I worked on the door that night, taking tickets and assessing intoxication. I consumed no alcohol or drugs, except for a half glass of wine before closing. This was after the accident I am about to mention.
At 2am on the 21st I walked down the driveway to the back of the club to my car with a male friend to get my jacket. At the car we heard a thud, but nightclubs are noisy and we didn’t think anything of it. We turned back down the driveway and half-way back I fell over a picnic table that a drunken patron had thrown over a fenced in smoking area at the back of the club. I landed on my hands and stomach over the sharp legs of the table. I grazed my hand but had no other immediate injuries.
We went home to bed and at 5am I woke up to find that I was soaked in blood.
At the hospital they logged it as a threatened miscarriage and not as an accident. This has caused huge problems in itself. During my stay in hospital I asked for an ACC form to be filled out but apparently this was never done. The club also delayed reporting the accident until after Li’s death, causing further problems with OSH.
A huge haematoma had formed between the bag of waters and my uterus, most likely as a result of my sharp and jolting fall. A scan two days earlier had been perfect.
I spent weeks in hospital on and off with complete bed rest at home. Li-yah stayed alive. Dr. Tomeu didn’t care anymore and just waited for her to die. He made that disgustingly obvious to us on several occasions, and repeatedly refused to source help for my other medical and pregnancy needs. I dropped to 46kg at 4 months pregnant due to the stress. I asked for a dietary consult. He said it was unnecessary. He told me I shouldn’t bother with bed rest and should run around to bring on a miscarriage. My nurse had to sneak in protein drinks because he forbade them. He stood outside my room and loudly said to hospital staff that he didn’t understand why I was upset as I could always have another baby (I have since had a hysterectomy) He said to ultrasound staff that he wished I would hurry up and ‘abort’ the baby. He said it was obvious I was mental and didn’t deserve a baby.
I requested a change in obstetrician.
At 17 weeks bloody water rushed down my legs. Knowing my waters had broken we rushed to the emergency room. My new doc wasn’t on, and I had a panic attack when the nurse told me Mr Tomeu was the only ob/gyn there. He walked in and I told him what had happened. I also brought my soaking pyjama pants in with me. I told him that the leaking seemed to have stopped. He checked me with a speculum but didn’t test for amniotic fluid. He attended a scan with my husband and I, which showed my waters had leaked to a dangerous level.
Li-yah was still alive.
He turned around, shrugged and said to me ‘it’s going to die anyway’ and walked out of the room. I was sent home with no treatment, breaking the Ministry of Health and the hospital’s guidelines for dealing with pre 20 weeks Premature Rupture of Membranes, which says anti-biotics need to be administered by IV immediately to prevent infection.
A few days later a new scan showed my waters had resealed and the liquor had built back up. My new doc put me on the antibiotic Amoxicillin in case of infection. The strain of e-coli Li-yah and I later contracted was resistant to Amoxicillin based antibiotics.
It is my lay opinion that either an infected piece of the rotting haematoma may have snuck in when my waters burst at 17 weeks and created Li-yah’s infection.
I went into early labour at 23 weeks and was admitted again to the hospital’s maternity ward. I was given anti-labour drugs and steroids for her lungs. This didn’t stop the slow labour process, probably because the infection had already taken hold and was slowly rotting out my bag of water. I also developed mastitis, very unusual before birth and early in the pregnancy, but probably because I already had e-coli. The hospital put me on antibiotics, but the wrong ones, the night before I was sent to a larger specialist maternity unit in another town.
At Queen Mary they immediately checked for infection and discovered the resistant e-coli. I was put on the right antibiotics but it was too late, I was already in labour.
My waters broke the next evening when I was going to the toilet. Carl had returned to our home town for the night and I was alone at the time. The call bell was too far away for me to reach. I was screaming in pain and unable to move as the huge haematoma pressed down to get out, as it had been sitting right above the dilating cervix. The broken waters were green and brown, and I was panicking.
Li-yah was born the next morning at 10.30, weighing in at a tiny 590 grams.
Initially she did well. 7 hours after she was born, we were called to the Neo-natal unit. Her blood ph and the level of infection were beyond the point of no return. She had already sustained fatal brain damage with the acidic blood. We could pump her blood through a machine but it may not work and if it did she would be a ‘vegetable’. God I hate that word!
We held her in our arms, had her blessed by a Maori elder. Cried, shook, begged the gods to magically make our precious baby better. Of course it didn’t happen.
At last we consented to the doctors giving her a shot of morphine, and turning off her ventilator. I held her mouth to my lips as she drew her last breath.
We kept her in our room until the police came and took her away for an autopsy. My husband had to go down later in the day and demand her back after the post-mortem. While her autopsy was unavoidable under the circumstances, it goes against our Maori beliefs to have the body opened and the placenta sampled. Everything must be returned to the earth. Because the next day was Easter Sunday, her body would have laid by itself in the mortuary till the end of the weekend. My husband stood over the nurses and the cops till he got our baby back 4 minutes before the mortuary closed. I’m so proud of him for that.
I was in emotional shock and also nearly dying from the E-coli infection that had passed to me in labour. It took us 2 days to get back to our home town. We kept her in our home for a week. I dressed her, made her bed, and held her. I wished I could keep her forever. My husband was very concerned that I would totally lose it when I handed her over to the cremator, but I didn’t.
Her ashes are in a beautiful tiny wooden chest in our home, with her wee tiny clothes, hats, and the dolls and teddies I bought her. I talk to her every day. I know she watches over me, and my son. My son is a crystal child and talks to her all the time. He gives me messages from her. He will go and stand in front of her ashes and caress her teddies and tell her how much he loves her. It breaks my heart. He was only 3 when she died.
After she died we went to the Occupational Safety & Health dept to chase up the fall as a workplace accident. OSH did an investigation and concluded that
1. The driveway was private and not a public thoroughfare (that’s why it has signs on it pointing the public down the driveway to other restaurants and bars!!!! Also, as hired by the DJ to represent him at the venue, I was staff that night and was entitled to park in the car park)
2. That it was an unforeseen event that a pregnant woman would fall at that time of night over a picnic table so it wasn’t the clubs’ fault. (Uh huh... so that is why there was a work order on the managers’ desk to fix the lighting? What if someone else walked down there and got killed by the flying table? What’s the difference? There were also no bouncers patrolling the back smoking area or checking the driveway & car park. The bar manager had also disappeared for an hour to take an E with his mates, and when he finally got back Carl and I informed him of the accident. He laughed at us. He also never filled out an OSH report until after her death, which is a law breach in itself)
OSH told us to go to the Police and lay a complaint against the specific person who threw the table (as if anyone knew who that was months later!) We went to the police and made a full complaint. The Police checked the post mortem report and said since it was an explained death there was no need to investigate.
Li-yah was a precious baby for an infertile couple who had done their best to keep their unborn baby alive against very huge odds. She was also my last child, due to more complications causing a hysterectomy.
Not long after I started investigating Mr Tomeu. I am a journalism degree student, and found out his US history & alerted the media. I then found out about Ella, and in the same week Ella’s mum Felicity and I both made a complaint to the Health and Disability Commissioner regarding his treatment of us and our children. The more I uncovered the more horrified I was.
Complaints by us and others lodged with the hospital were refuted, denied, covered up. Mr Tomeu falsified not only Ella’s circumstances but mine as well, providing answers to our complaints which were blatantly incorrect, but the hospital believed him.
The HDC came back to say that in an expert opinion, Li-yah was doomed from the time of the haematoma. Since this occurred in the 3 hours following the fall, surely there is no coincidence. Li-yah’s death was the result of an accident that caused me, and therefore her, an injury, which caused an infection which almost killed me and did kill her. It is no accident at any level.
The club’s management laughed.
OSH said no, not the club, despite the venue having serious safety issues for staff and patrons.
The Police said no.
The Doctor said not me.
The hospital says nothing ever happened.
I will never stop fighting for justice for my baby. We had a perfectly normal, precious, so so SO wanted baby. This never EVER needed to happen.
