Guyana has recorded three maternal deaths since the start of the year, according to Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony.
He was questioned on the issue this morning in the National Assembly by Opposition Member of Parliament, Dr. Karen Cummings.
Dr Cummings had enquired into the number of maternal deaths recorded at both the New Amsterdam and Suddie Hospitals in 2025.
But Minister Anthony told the House that while there were no maternal deaths recorded at those two hospitals; the country did in fact record a total of three maternal deaths since the start of the year.
“So, there were no deaths at New Amsterdam in 2025. There were no deaths at Suddie Hospital in 2025. But if what you are asking is whether we had maternal deaths for 2025, yes, we had three, at Port Mourant Hospital, that’s not New Amsterdam. We had another one at Charity, that’s not Suddie Hospital and we had a third at Bartica,” the Health Minister disclosed.
A maternal death is a death of a patient while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy and its management, but not from accident or incidental causes.
It was explained that the patient, who died at the Port Mourant Hospital suffered from eclampsia and died within an hour of being admitted to the public hospital.
“The cause of the first patient, I wouldn’t go into the details of the patients, but one of the causes that we have is, the person suffered from a ruptured artery, which caused bleeding and that was because she suffered from eclampsia…this patient came in, and within less than an hour, the doctors, who were managing that patient had less than an hour to work with that patient. Unfortunately, that patient died,” the Health Minister explained.
According to the Health Minister, the second patient died after suffering a cardiogenic shock, while the third patient had severe anemia resulting in complications including sepsis and multi-organ failure.
The Ministry of Health has been leading a campaign to reduce the number of maternal deaths in the country.
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