NUH urges public not to speculate on incident involving woman who lost unborn baby after wait at A&E

SINGAPORE — The National University Hospital (NUH) on Tuesday (March 22) urged the public not to speculate on an incident in which an expectant mother lost her unborn baby after waiting at the hospital’s emergency medicine department for two hours, despite bleeding profusely from her birth canal.

The woman's husband, Facebook user by the name "Mee Pok Tah", had published a post on Monday about the incident that occurred on March 15. The post has since gone viral on social media. 

In the post, he said that his wife, who was 36 weeks' pregnant, started bleeding profusely from the birth canal while she was bathing at 9.30pm on Tuesday. 

After calling 995 for assistance, paramedics arrived within 10 minutes and his wife was taken to the NUH accident and emergency (A&E) department immediately. 

Upon arriving at the A&E department at around 10.30pm, paramedics informed the nurse who was on duty about the wife's condition. She was still bleeding profusely at that time, he said.

However, he then claimed that she was left unattended at the A&E for around two hours after a nurse helped to set up a monitoring device to check her vital signs.

During this period, the couple was not informed that there was no bed in the maternity ward and no doctors or nurses came to check on his wife’s condition, the husband wrote.

At 12.48am, the wife was taken to the maternity ward, where doctors and nurses attended to her. 

After checking on the woman and baby, the doctors informed the wife that despite having a heart structure, the baby had no heartbeat and had died.

“I would like to find out why there is a time lapse of two hours from the moment my wife reached the A&E department? Isn’t losing excessive blood a life-threatening situation to a person who is not pregnant, let alone a pregnant lady?” the Facebook user wrote. 

“This is a really unfortunate incident and I can't stop thinking: My baby might have been saved if we were attended to promptly,” he added. 

NUH said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that it is aware of social media posts and reports regarding the incident. 

“We are in touch with the family to support them during this difficult time. Out of respect for the family, we seek the public’s understanding not to speculate about the circumstances surrounding the incident.” 

The Facebook user also updated his original post, stating that he received a call from NUH on Monday at 12.30pm. NUH had assured the couple that investigations are ongoing. 

NUH had earlier told several news media outlets that they are aware of the incident and is now investigating the case. 

The hospital would not say if it was looking into the matter when asked by TODAY. 

In a separate post by the user, the couple’s child, who they named Titus, was cremated at Mandai Crematorium and Columbarium last Wednesday. 

“We are sorry, baby Titus. We are unable to keep you safe and sound…I hope you will be a good boy in Heaven,” he wrote.