Worried, Hsiung, aged 29, had asked the nurses in charge with his wife, Zhang Chun, 27 because he was warned that the woman was suffering critical complications during the delivery.
After a few hours, he went outside the operating theater to check on his wife. However, it seemed that there was no one inside. Forcing his way in, he managed to get inside where he found his wife’s body on the table, already dead with a cleaner sitting nearby while smoking a cigarette and eating a coconut. The baby, luckily, survived the birthing process.
“I was going out of my mind outside wondering what had happened, yet they had gone home and my dead wife was left on a table in front of a guy eating his lunch,” he narrated in an interview. “When I got into the room it was too late she was already dead and none of the surgical or medical team were anywhere to be seen.”
Hospital officials, however, said that complications arose because of Hsiung and his wife’s refusal on their suggestion that they conduct a Caesarean section because the baby was too large.
“After giving birth, the patient suffered from excessive bleeding,” one of the hospital spokesman said, “As an emergency, her uterus was removed after five hours, but it was not enough to save her and she passed away that night.”
Hsiung’s wife died because of a rare condition called Amniotic Fluid Embolism, according to official inquiries. However, he continues to sue the hospital authorities for compensation, saying that they bungled the delivery.
He complained that the reason that he was kept away for so long was to give the nurses time to “cook up their story and get rid of incriminating evidence.”
“But I want to see all the papers, all the medical records and all the statements,” Hsiung said.
In response, the hospital spokesman regarded Hsiung’s demands, “We are in negotiations with the patient's husband and family over compensation. We admit that not everything went as it should have done in this case.”
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Gabrielle Faith Studies BS Architecture at UP Diliman College of Architecture
