Dannett Gooden lovingly gazes at her son Nathaniel. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

A sad spin was put to the joyous refrain, bouncing baby boy, when a mother's newborn reportedly fell to the ground during birth at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital (VJH) in Kingston last month.

During a visit to the VJH on November 4, 2008 to investigate claims that two or more expectant mothers were forced to share a single-patient bed, The Gleaner's news team met Dannett Gooden.

Gooden, 40, was one of three mothers seated on a wooden bench waiting to be admitted to the post-natal ward. But there was something conspicuously missing: She was the only mother on the bench not cl**tching her bundle of joy.

Hospital negligence

The mother of four provided details of what she described as the hospital's negligence, which resulted in her baby boy falling to the hospital floor after he exited her w****.

Gooden explained that she delivered the baby standing up. Then the unthinkable happened. The umbilical cord snapped as the baby exited the w**** and the child hit the hospital floor. The mother said the baby's shoulder softened the blow to his head.

There was *lo** everywhere, she said, even on the soles of her feet. Gooden claimed that three nurses were in the delivery room when the incident happened.

Gooden told The Gleaner that she was in the waiting room when labour pains set in.

"I was in labour (and) I asked a nurse for assistance, she said I must go to the delivery room. When I went into the delivery room, three nurses were there doing nothing."

Gooden claimed indecision grabbed a hold of her because of the contradictory instructions being given to her simultaneously.

"I asked them for assistance. Confusing (me), one was saying go on the low bed, the next one say go on that bed which was the high bed."

She continued: "I was asking them for help ... . The baby was coming and I was standing asking for help (and there was) no one to help me so the baby just fell while I was standing."

"The baby fell over there and the (umbilical) cord popped," she explained.

Refusing to help

Gooden claimed that one of the nurses refused to pick up the new-born. She also alleged that one of the nurses told her that she should have caught the baby and not allowed him to hit the floor.

"One was saying 'no, I'm not taking it up. I'm not taking up the child'. They were blaming me a lot, saying it was my fault that the baby fell but it wasn't my fault because I was asking for help," insisted the distraught mother.

"After that, they said I must go on the bed. I spread the towel and go on the bed and then *lo** was all over so they started to assist me. Then afterwards they picked the baby up."

No injuries

Gooden, who gave birth on November 4, said she did not get to hold her baby until the day she was discharged from the hospital - two days after giving birth. She also said that she was told that an X-ray revealed that the baby did not sustain any injuries in the fall. But Gooden wants independent confirmation of that claim.

The Ministry of Health said it had no record of the incident involving Gooden.

"Our records cannot support the assertion of any baby falling during the birthing process in recent times.

"At VJH, no baby has fallen in recent times because of non-attendance at birth. There is always a skilled birth attendant to perform the delivery of all patients on the labour ward," read a section of the ministry's response, sent via email.

However, the health ministry did not state whether or not such incidents had occurred in the past.

Meanwhile, Novlin Little, deputy chief executive officer of the Kingston Public Hospital, who has direct responsibility for the VJH, confirmed that a verbal report of the incident was made to the hospital's administration on December 2.

Waiting on complaint

She told The Gleaner that the hospital's investigative machinery will pursue the matter as soon as Gooden files a written complaint.

"We have a lady who came in so we are in the process of conducting an investigation," she said.

Little explained that if Gooden's claim is proven to be true, the matter would be sent to a standing committee that would take the appropriate action.

"It's hard to say what exactly will be the measures taken. It has to go to a committee that is set up to deal with things of this nature," she told The Gleaner.

In addition to prescribing action to be taken, the standing committee would also examine the existing systems that are in place, to prevent recurrences.