The mother who left her three-day-old baby went into labor at about 11PM on Friday December 12. Her husband Pissi Kamara says he received a call from his mother while at work telling him that his wife was not breathing normally. He immediately instructed his mother to call the Ambulance according to him. But all the numbers they dialed were unreachable. This he said led them to call Montserrado County District #13 lawmaker Saah Joseph to send his first Responders ambulance.

Kamara said the lawmaker sent the ambulance immediately, but all of the community clinics they took his wife, she was turned down. He explained that at one of the clinics, where his wife did her prenatal care in Gardnersville, the ambulance was instructed to proceed to the John F. Kennedy memorial hospital in Sinkor, but she was again rejected at the JFK.

"We had to call the honorable man Saah Joseph and he immediately called out to the Ambulance and the Ambulance came. We did everything we could, the driver was so patient, so we started going to all the community clinics, including where she did her prenatal care," he said.

Kamara added that when healthcare workers looked at the condition, but told them that they could not handle the case. "So we were instructed to go to JFK and I told them that I wanted my wife to be taken care of, so the nurse told me to go to SDA." Kamara told FrontPageAfrica that he pleaded with the nurse who was on duty to show him a hospital, which could help save his wife and his baby, and the nurse instructed him to take his wife to the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Cooper hospital on 12th Street.

Kamara said when they arrived at the SD cooper hospital, the Nurses paid little attention to them and did not even touch the patient, but they only asked few questions and told them to go back to JFK. "Immediately we got there, the nurses did not even come to look at the patient, the security went in and called out to them and they all just told us to go to JFK," he said.

Kamara explained that he told the nurses that he was covered by insurance at the hospital and even had someone who is almost like a Godfather to him, but the nurses refused and said they could not touch his phone because of Ebola. "And I had his number in my other phone, which I forgot at home because of the rush. She never gave me Doctor Sonnie's number until we drove to JFK."

At JFK, Kamara said the nurses instructed them to proceed to the Defense Ministry Ebola Treatment Unit. At the ETU the nurses also told them that it was not Ebola related so they could not help. Kamara said they proceeded to the Catholic hospital, where they were also rejected on grounds that they health workers were not equipped.

"When we got to JFK the nurse told us that the Machine was down." Looking at the critical condition of his wife, he says he could not ask anymore. "The JFK staff instructed us to go to 540, so we went to 540," he said. "When we got there, the people told us that it was not Ebola related, so they could not help. So we left and went to the Catholic hospital, the same thing happened; catholic hospital told us they could not help."

Kamara says based on the confusion, the ambulance driver, called his boss and told him about the situation. It was then, he says that Rep. Joseph then told them to go to Masco, a clinic located on the Somalia Drive opposite MVTC which took them in at 4am at which time his wife was given a Caesarian section. Kamara explained further that the clinic stabilized his wife's breathing, which gave him hope, but because of the delay as a result of the hospital's refusal to treat her she died.

Lamenting over the tragedy that took his wife's life, Kamara declared: "Liberia, we don't have healthcare in this country. Cases that can be treated, people are dying from it because of Ebola. The world really needs to focus its attention to save humanity. All the huge support and money donated by the international community is not making an impact on the people."

Over the past years the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has worked and devoted its attention to reducing maternal deaths in Liberia. Progress was being made by the UN agency in this sector has, but since the Ebola outbreak that started in March this year, many women and children have died from non Ebola related illnesses. Many pregnant women are rejected by hospitals for fear they might have Ebola. Kamara appealed to the UNFPA to take the lead since they have been fighting to reduce maternal mortality in Liberia.

"I would like to tell UNFP, actually as a victim, I don't want another person to be a victim, they need to put their feet down. If they are only giving the money for the item to be purchased, or they were only funding projects, let themselves fund the projects and do the work themselves, if they only depend on the authorities in the health sector, zero, zero."

Kamara says he thinks that the authorities overseeing the health sector are not doing much for health workers as it relates to benefits and incentives which could be one of the reasons the health workers have adopted the habit of rejecting patients. Kamara appealed to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to focus more attention on the health sector.

Link to original article from Yall Africa