Epress.am News from Armenia
Three days ago, a youth civil initiative called “We won’t be silent” received a call from a resident of the town of Vayk in southern Armenia regarding an incident in the town’s maternity ward.
The incident described in the video allegedly took place days earlier and involves a family from the village of Gndevaz in Vayots Dzor marz (province), though reportedly this is not the only family that has been affected. According to “We won’t be silent” which prepared the video below, on Aug. 11, a woman, in preparation of delivery, was moved to the hospital in Vayk, where she was to wait for department head Metaxya Hovhannisyan. Relatives of the woman in labor (who was not named), Avetik Ikhpiaryan and Tsovinar Khachatryan, describe what happened afterwards.
Khachatryan notes in the video that the patient was injected with pethidine and sent home. “We know Dimedrol [in fact, most likely meant Demerol or pethidine] is not allowed during birth,” says Khachatryan in the video, adding that they informed the nurse who simply told them she is doing what she was told.
The family was then told by the head of the maternity ward Metaxya Hovhannisyan to prolong the labor and that she would visit the family at 10 pm that evening, says Ikhpiaryan in the video. Hovhannisyan did indeed come, he continues; however, she delivered a stillborn.
The stillborn was sent to Yerevan and then to England for an autopsy, say the relatives, who were told the cause of death was brain hemorrhaging.
The family believes the child’s death is due to the prescribed pethidine in part and to negligence on the part of hospital staff, and Metaxya Hovhannisyan in particular.
Video in Armenian only.