Marlenes, a classically trained pianist and a vice principal in the Elizabeth Public Schools, came to the US from Cuba at the age of 19. Sadly on June 25th, she became another statistic in the 830 women who die every day, according to World Health Organization, from preventable pregnancy and childbirth-related causes.
Marlenes and her husband Antonio Teixeira checked into Trinitas Regional Medical Center at 3:30 PM on 2nd of February for the birth of their twin boys via cesarean Section. Tony and Teo were born three hours later.
Marlenes, however, had developed a frontal headache and severely elevated high blood pressure, her condition persisted until 11:00 PM when she became verbally unresponsive and lost all feeling on the left side of her body. Minutes later she began seizing, and a CAT scan revealed she had suffered a brain hemorrhage which prompted her to be transferred to St. Barnabas Medical Center where she died four months later, never having regained consciousness.
Though grateful for the gifts of the two boys, Antonio Teixeira has filed a lawsuit against the management and staff of Trinitas Regional Medical Center for the death of Marlenes due to alleged negligent treatment in the immediate hours following her delivery. As per the lawsuit, the Chief of Staff for State Sen. Raymond Lesniak further alleges the medical staffs were unable to detect and correctly treat his wife’s hypertensive disorder, in this case, Preeclampsia.
Preeclampsia is defined as a disorder that commonly affects women in their last and final pregnancy trimester and some cases during postpartum and is characterized by persistent headaches, sudden high blood pressure, and other nervous system disorders. Without a proper care to manage the seizures and the high blood pressure it could potentially lead to postpartum stroke. “The death of such a young mother and wife at a tender age regardless of the circumstance is tragic especially when with proper treatment and management it was easily preventable,” said Ernest Fronzuto, Teixeira’s lawyer. “It is disheartening that Marlenes held her twins for a few countable hours and was affected by a stroke that left her in a coma simply because her care following the childbirth was grossly underestimated and mismanaged”.
