Mother loses her baby and doctors throw the fetus in the trash at the Atlántida Hospital
Authorities at the Atlántida General Hospital offered an explanation following a complaint filed by the relatives of a young woman who lost her first-time baby and found the fetus thrown in the trash.
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A 19-year-old woman who suffered a miscarriage experienced an additional tragedy when doctors, in an act considered insensitive, threw the fetus in the trash instead of giving it a dignified treatment, according to the woman’s relatives.
The incident occurred at the Atlántida General Hospital in La Ceiba, Atlántida . The young woman, a first-time mother, arrived at the hospital from Sonaguera, Colón , in the Caribbean of Honduras , after experiencing complications during her pregnancy.
“My daughter’s baby died inside her womb. The doctors gave her an abortion serum and took him out in this hospital, but they threw him away like manure in the dumpster. They had to give me my grandson because he was well formed,” said the young woman’s mother, crying, speaking to local media.
The woman said that before discovering the incident, she asked the hospital staff about the whereabouts of the fetus and was told that it should be in the same room where her daughter was. However, she found it in a garbage bin.
In a video, the woman can be seen taking a plastic bag out of the trash can, opening it and finding the fetus wrapped in paper. She then saved it to take it to its place of origin and bury it in a decent place.
“I asked them to explain to me why they threw him in the trash, and a doctor told me that why were we going to take him, if he is so small. But what does he care? They had to hand him over, because it is not an animal that they threw away,” the mother complained, visibly affected.
Authorities at the Atlántida General Hospital apologized to the young mother and her family, and assured that protocol establishes that if the fetus is more than 21 weeks old, it must be taken to the morgue for relatives to claim it.
Dr. Silvia Bardales, director of the health center, clarified that the fetus thrown into the dumpster was 16 weeks old, and although she does not justify this action, she acknowledged the lack of communication from the staff towards the young mother and her family.
Bardales said the fetus was thrown out by a nursing student who was expelled from the hospital because she is not qualified to practice that profession.
