Police in Samoa investigate death of mother while in Labor

Samoa’s Ministry of Police is investigating the death of a 36 year old mother while she was in labour.

“We are not looking at any possible criminal charges, but the police’s job is to investigate the matter and that’s why we are following up the matter closely,” said police spokesman Su’a Le Mamea Tiumalu.

“The latest report we have is that she died during the operation. There hasn’t been any information about how she died or the reason behind it. But we will release information as they are confirmed,” he said.

The incident occurred on January 29, where the mother was in the operating room with nine doctors present.

Su’a says the investigation will both look at how the mother died, as well as why the nine doctors involved were not able to save the child in her womb.

“We’re not going to speculate anything, because we don’t understand fully what the situation was. However, if there was a chance of saving one’s life, the police will eventually uncover that after investigations,” he said.

This is the first of two cases of death involving pregnancy. A week before on January 21, another mother gave birth to a healthy child at Motootua Hospital. Two days later the infant was pronounced dead.

“The investigations continue into this matter. The findings so far reveal that the baby was delivered healthy and the loss of life had occurred two days later when the mother had already moved out of the hospital,” said Su’a.

He says there are no suspicions directed to the second case as well. LoopSamoa