Tonight, a family from San Roman, Corozal is making preparations to bury their 2 week old baby girl, after she passed away at the KHMH yesterday.
While the KHMH registered the death at their hospital, the child was born with a medical condition, which needed urgent surgery. The condition is known as Pyloric Stenosis, where the muscle between the stomach and the small intestine is enlarged, and it doesn't allow food to pass into the small intestine.
According to the grandparents, they took her to the private hospital, Northern Medical Plaza, in Orange Walk, where she underwent surgery to correct that defect, and according to the family, they believe that errors made in that surgery caused the child to die.
Today, 7News spoke with the grandmother of 15 day-old Dulce Maria Coye, where she explained exactly what happened from the time of her birth, to the last moment of her very short life:
Rosa Tun, Grandmother of Deceased
"She was born a beautiful baby. She stayed at home for about 15 days then she started to vomit. I took the baby to the hospital and they told me that the baby has something inside of her stomach and that's why she vomited everything she drinks.
I ask the doctor what to do. The hospital in Orange Walk told me that she needs a surgery. They told me to take her to Belize City hospital for surgery and she stays here she will die. The Orange Walk hospital told me that I need to pay $4,000 for the surgery.
At about 10:57 on Thursday they operated on the baby and about 11:00 they brought the baby and told me that the baby is alright; everything went well. I took the baby home on Saturday and I gave her the medication. On Monday about 10:00am I brought the baby for dressing. The doctor told me that the baby has something inside her stomach because her stomach is big. He told me that they have to do another operation on her again because the baby has a lot of gas in her stomach.
I ask the doctor why are they going to do operation on my baby again because she had just gotten one? The doctor said that the baby has a lot of gas and he need to see what is going on. I told him okay, if the baby is going to get better then go ahead.
About 4 o' clock the doctor came out and told me that everything is fine, but he never told me that they had left something inside of the baby. About 5 o' clock in the afternoon they told me that the operation went well but that the respiration is a little bit slow.
They told me that they are going to call an ambulance to bring the baby to Belize City because Belize City hospital have the equipment for the baby. I ask the doctor why is he taking my child to Belize City, because I paid to do the operation here. They took me to Belize City hospital for treatment for the baby. When I got here the nurse told me that the baby is in critical condition.
They say that they will do their best for the baby. The next morning about 5am the baby died. The nurse told me that the x-ray showed that the doctor had left a little needle inside the baby and that needle punctured her stomach."
Daniel Ortiz, Reporter
"So, because of this needle; that's what cause the baby to die?"
Rosa Tun, Grandmother of Deceased
"The baby died because of the needle that the doctor left of the baby."
Daniel Ortiz, Reporter
"Who do you blame for the debt of your baby?"
Rosa Tun, Grandmother of Deceased
"The nurse said that the doctor left the needle inside of the baby that's why the baby died sir. The baby was a beautiful girl (crying). She was very beautiful. I was with her from when I gave birth and the pediatric told me that the baby was in good condition."
Daniel Ortiz, Reporter
"What was the name of the baby?"
Rosa Tun, Grandmother of Deceased
"Dolci Maria Coye."
Daniel Ortiz, Reporter
"You guys will miss Dolci dearly?"
Rosa Tun, Grandmother of Deceased
"Yes sir. I want them to give me my money back. They can't give me back my baby. I want the $4,000 back because she is worth more than that. She is my first child. Never in my life had I thought that I would go through this."
The post-mortem conducted on baby Dulce, which certified that she died of septic shock as a consequence of peritonitis - meaning an internal infection. The certificate notes that this inflammation was caused by the surgery performed to correct Congenital Pyloric Stenosis, which the family says occurred at the Northern Medical Plaza.
Today, 7News contacted Dr. Marco Tulio Mendez, one of the administrators at the hospital, and who is also PUP Area Representative for Orange Walk East. We had 2 conversations with Mendez, who told us that he had no knowledge of the case of Baby Dulce. He told us that the only person who is able to explain the situation to us is the attending physician who performed the surgery.
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