Epress.am News from Armenia
Tsovinar Khachatryan, resident of the village of Gndevaz in the Armenian marz (province) of Vayots Dzor, speaking to Epress.am by phone, said her family is not currently preparing to file a lawsuit against head of the maternity ward in Vayk hospital Metaxya Hovhannisyan.
“If push comes to shove, we will definitely take her to court,” she said.
As reported previously, a youth civil initiative called “We won’t be silent” circulated a video online in which relatives of 20-year-old, first-time-pregnant Armine Torosyan described what they call carelessness and negligence on the part of Hovhannisyan.
Khachatryan, who appears in the video and is Torosyan’s mother-in-law’s sister, said they haven’t yet launched proceedings because “we are residents of one village; we’re not enemies after all, but Metaxya shouldn’t work.”
“Our bride [a common term to refer to a daughter-in-law or sister-in-law] had a normal pregnancy — she didn’t have any problems. It’s because of Metaxya that our child has been in a coma for 15 days. The doctors say he had a accumulation of blood in.. his brain; they say he can’t be saved. It’s just that the child’s heart is healthy; he’s still alive; we don’t know what will happen. During the labor, Metaxya told us go get string, it costs 4,000 drams that string — but what was that string supposed to do if there are no stitches on our bride? She pocketed that string. Then she said go bring oil for an enema, she used one drop. She put that too in her purse,” said Khachatryan.
The concerned relative also said Torosyan is now out of hospital, she feels fine, but the boy, weighing 3.5 kg, is being supervised by doctors in Yerevan’s no. 4 hospital.
Head of the RA Ministry of Healthcare’s public relations department Shushan Hunanyan told Epress.am that a working group has been created, as instructed by the minister.
“They’ve gone to the hospital to assess the child’s condition, and they’ve left for Vayk. I have nothing more to add at this time,” said Hunanyan.