by WADE GIBBONS JUST OVER A MONTH after giving birth to twin daughters at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), Sophia Kinch says she does not know what has become of them. The St Christopher, Christ Church woman told the DAILY NATION yesterday she went into labour at the QEH sometime after 10 p.m. on December 2 and gave birth to the girls that same night. "They cleaned them up, put clips on their navels and placed them on my stomach. I actually felt them move. In fact they kind of tickled my stomach," she said. Kinch, 33, said she was later escorted to a bathroom by a nurse for additional cleaning. On returning to the bed, she added, the babies were not there. "I asked for them and the nurse said they were gone," she recalled. Queried as to whether the nurse had said they had "died" or were "dead", Kinch responded that the nurse merely said "gone". She was later admitted to Ward B4 before eventually being discharged on December 4. Kinch said she was seven months pregnant at the time of the deliveries, pointing out that she first attended a private doctor in early July 2006, when she was six-weeks into her pregnancy. "No one at the hospital ever explained to me what happened to my babies. I never saw them after being taken into the bathroom. I have been through pregnancies before and knew what was going on around me. When I gave birth. I was fully conscious," she said. The self-employed mother of three added: "If they died I have a right as their mother to see them. I have the right to bury them. I have a right to at least be told something about what will happen to their bodies. The hospital cannot just get rid of them without telling me something. At this stage I honestly do not know if they are alive or dead." She explained that her mother, Gloria Kinch, and sister, Sharon Kinch, were at the QEH on the date of her deliveries and neither was shown the bodies of any babies. The distraught woman said she and the babies' father, Victor Adams, subsequently sought legal advice. Yesterday, public relations consultant for the hospital, Ricardo Blackman, gave a totally different version. While Kinch said she was more than seven months pregnant, Blackman said she was examined by a hospital consultant who told her she was 23 weeks pregnant and would lose the babies. "This she clearly understood. Both babies died at birth. The patient was shown the babies, and, in keeping with normal procedure effecting premature delivery, both babies were disposed of," he said. Asked if the mother was given the option of disposing of the babies herself, Blackman said: "That does not come into play." Blackman confirmed the QEH had received correspondence from an attorney-at-law representing Kinch, and had responded to the lawyer indicating the matter was being investigated. Attorney-at-law Desmond Sands told the DAILY NATION that having been retained by Kinch he wrote the QEH in early December on the matter, but had yet to receive a response.
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