Grieving Mother Demands Answers After Baby Dies at KHMH

Tonight, another grieving mother is coming forward, sharing the heartbreaking final hours of her baby’s life inside the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Alicia Kuylen says she brought her two‑month‑old son, Damani, to KHMH on January eighth after he stopped feeding, following a referral from a public clinic. What followed, she describes, was an agonizing wait, hours with a distressed, crying baby before help arrived, and only after other mothers in the room demanded urgent attention. By the time Damani was finally treated, Kuylen says her son received a blood transfusion using a donation nearly a month old. Hours later, her baby was dead. Tonight, through her grief, this mother is finding the strength to speak out and call for justice.

 

Voice of : Alicia Kuylen, Mother of Baby Damani

“They said they wa need to do a blood transfusion. So I tell her – they mi done tell me that blood transfusion noh safe for kids. So I asked the lady, I said, miss, when she come back, she said that how the only blood type, the only blood weh ih have for my baby blood type is a blood that is twenty-nine days old. And she said that, so she said, I asked her, I said, miss, would that be safe because I don’t know about those stuff. She said, I already consulted with two other doctors and they said to let me give him an injection so he doesn’t have any major reaction to the blood transfusion. I said, okay, then well they da professionals soh I di goh with what they say. I did not sleep that whole night. I was up, my baby was holding my hand. I was looking at him. I was talking to him, telling him that Mommy’s here, I love you. And then like my baby mi di move the whole while. Like as they give ah them – cause they give a seven injections with the before the blood transfusion. They say five sedative and I don’t remember the other two injections. So when they give ah that and then the blood transfusion, I see my baby like he stopped moving. He noh di say nothing again like he mi di talk to me before. Cause baby, you might say and how the baby the talk ’cause ih only two months, but baby make sounds like yeah. So we the do that ’cause I mi di video it and everything and then I just see my baby just de deh the watch me like he noh the move or nothing.  Then I see ih hand the glitch like, so I say maybe da because he cold. So I put ih hand under the, wa warmer weh they have. I put ih hand under that. Then you see ih chest start move fast. Then I see my baby just stop move right then and there. Then I get my phone because I neva know weh fi do. Because the lady deh in de and I see she the try press ih chest. But I done see ih dead. I literally see my baby stop breathe deh.”

 

News Five has reached out to officials at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital and the Ministry of Health for comment, but up to news time, no response has been received. This is now the third infant death we’ve reported on this week, all from the same time period. Minister of Health and Wellness Kevin Bernard says he is looking into the matter. We’ll have more from Alicia Kuylen tomorrow, and we continue to seek answers from the authorities.