Chairman of the North Central Regional Health Authority Dr Shehenaz Mohammed said the authority had learned several things from the experience of delivering and taking care of the first sextuplets born in the region. The babies were born on March 4 to Petra Lee Foon and Keron Cummings.
Speaking to the T&T Guardian in the wake of the death of the last hospitalised sextuplet, Persia, last week, Mohammed said the NCRHA realised that parents throughout the country needed to be counselled more on fertility treatments, and further training in neonatology was needed for future local neonatologists. In a May 9 T&T Guardian report, father Cummings was quoted as saying if he could have done it again he would have gone abroad. The sextuplets were a first for T&T and the Caribbean.
With the sextuplets, Mohammed said, there was a high risk which resulted in “adverse events.” This was not a result of lack of skill or negligence, she added. Mohammed pointed out that she was not an obstetrician, but felt antenatal care for multiple gestations needed to be looked at. She said foetal reduction or selective reduction (reducing the number of foetuses in a multiple pregnancy) should also be considered, although it is not currently offered in T&T.
She added that legislation to regulate medications used for fertility treatment should also be examined. Training and mentorship, she added, were needed at all levels and young doctors needed to be encouraged to specialise in neonatology. She said as the chairman of the authority, through Health Minister Fuad Khan, she was exploring training for future local neonatologists abroad.
Mohammed reiterated, however, that nothing went wrong clinically or with regard to equipment in the management of the care of the Lee Foon-Cummings sextuplets.