Imagine being told that you were to have a child. Do you feel that excitement? We all do or will or have. Now imagine it is time to have that child and all you need to do is drive to the local hospital system in your area.
Mother and Child - Beautiful isnt it?
The baby is born and all is well and family members rejoice.
Reports are the child died while inside the mother’s womb, following a night of painful complications. On Wednesday night, the young mother went to the San Pedro Poly Clinic after she felt labour pains. While there, the doctor told her that because of the level of complications, she would need to undergo a C-section. But the problem is that the island’s Polyclinic is not outfitted with a child birth facility, and the mother was told she had to find a way to get to Belize City.
An Image of the Poly Clinic - Image Courtesy of the San Pedro Sun
That presented an even more troubling issue, because the island no longer has an emergency transportation system. Since BATSUB announced that they were discontinuing that service in July 2010, the Government promised but has made no effort to find a replacement mechanism for emergency transportation.
The mother, though in excruciating pain, was forced to wait out the night until the wee hours of Thursday morning before being able to charter a private plane. Still it delayed the medical attention, because the flight went from the island to the international airport, and then to Belize City. Full Article: http://www.belizetimes.bz/2011/05/05/another-baby-dies-due-to-inadequate-health-system/ Forum Discussion
Now imagine another scenario where the child is on its way to crowning but there are some complications such as needing to have a C- Section. No problem that procedure is well known right? Well not so much in Belize. The procedure is well known BUT the time it takes to arrive to the facility is laborious. Such is the case with an unfortunate mother to a now still born – who noticing her pains went to the hospital in her area but was referred to another facility OFF of the island of San Pedro.
Unfortunately due to no emergency air transportation system in place she had to endure pain for many hours while being flown from San Pedro to the mainland THEN to the location of the hospital that could properly care for her. And by then – unfortunately it was too late and her once living child was born a stillborn.
Typical Emergency Air Transpo. System
Practicing empathy – imagine how much anger and sorrow this woman must be dealing with now and will have to possibly deal with for the remainder of her time here on earth.
We have to do better in providing for ourselves. The population of Belize is growing rapidly and it would make sense to open the previously closed facility or at least build a temporary one. While foreign companies (investigate the history between “belize” and britain) rape the local population economically and exploit them for labor. They do not provide for the community in any way, shape or form. The government could have the facility they needed if they just made companies donate back. Also we reached out to various Belizean organizations in the west and also an architecture firm with the idea of sponsoring a contest to design a new facility for San Pedro. What do you think?
