The baby boy born after a seven-month gestational period to a Fyzabad couple died of natural causes consistent with a pre-term delivery, pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov said yesterday.
Speaking with Guardian Media after completing the autopsy, Alexandrov said the child, who was to be named Kemron by his parents, died due to insufficient surfactant, a chemical produced in the womb to help the body exchange oxygen in the lungs. He added that if the child had been placed in an incubator soon after birth, he would have had a 75 per cent chance of survival.
Speaking at the Forensic Science Centre in St James yesterday after viewing the autopsy, the child’s father, Kimraj Jurai, said they delivered him at home on July 1 with the assistance of the doctor over the phone. Jurai and the child’s mother, Gail Sooknanan, then immediately took him to the doctor’s office for a check-up.
Jurai said Sooknanan wanted to stay with the child during that period, but the doctor advised her to go home, clean up and return. However, Jurai claimed when they went home and later contacted the doctor to return for the baby, the doctor told them he had taken the baby boy, measuring about 18 inches, to the hospital. Checks since then revealed there is no record of such an event happening.
“After seeing the baby we decided on the name. When the baby born she say she would stay with the baby (at the doctor’s office when they returned later in the day), but the doctor say no go home and clean up. He was giving we instruction on what to do over the phone. The baby was alive when he was born. He had all his body parts he was just small,” Jurai said.
Relatives also told the media yesterday that one minute they saw the child and the next the child had “disappeared.” One relative claimed the mother also denied she was pregnant when asked before the child was born prematurely.
Police said they got involved when a close relative of the couple contacted them after the baby was born and no one could account for the child’s whereabouts. Officers later found the dead baby in the refrigerator of a doctor’s office in San Fernando on Monday, after carrying out a search of the office.