Families who lost their newborn babies at Port of Spain General Hospital are standing firm in their demands for accountability, rejecting any compensation deal that does not include a formal admission of liability from the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA), the public body responsible for running the facility.
Leading the group of bereaved mothers is Freedom Law Chambers, helmed by Senior Counsel Anand Ramlogan. In an official correspondence dated May 7, 2024, addressed to the NWRHA’s external legal team at Pollonais, Blanc, de la Bastide & Jacelon (PBDJ), the firm outlined its clients’ non-negotiable terms: while the families are open to negotiated settlement, they will not accept any agreement that clears the health authority of legal responsibility for the deaths.
The response, signed by attorney Sue Ann Deosaran, was drafted in reply to the NWRHA’s recent request for the families to submit formal compensation proposals. According to the legal team, the mothers unanimously view no-liability payments as nothing more than “hush money”, designed to silence them rather than deliver meaningful justice.
“This is not simply about money as the NWRHA seems to think,” the correspondence reads. Beyond financial compensation, the families are pushing for full acknowledgment of what happened and systemic changes that will prevent other families from enduring the same devastating loss.
To date, Freedom Law Chambers is representing 19 families connected to infant deaths that occurred at the hospital between April 4 and April 9, 2024. The firm noted that not every affected mother who reached out has had pre-action protocol letters issued, as each case undergoes individual assessment to confirm whether there are reasonable grounds to pursue a medical negligence claim.
A core barrier to advancing fair compensation negotiations, the legal team argues, is the lack of independent medical analysis. Such expert reports are critical to helping the families understand the strength of their claims and set appropriate compensation values, but the NWRHA has so far refused to cover the cost of hiring independent experts, putting bereaved families at a significant structural disadvantage.
The law firm has also raised sharp questions about the slow pace and lack of transparency surrounding the NWRHA’s internal investigation into the deaths. Nearly a month after the incidents occurred, the probe remains incomplete. The firm is now demanding a firm public deadline for the investigation’s conclusion, alongside a formal commitment to share the full findings with families within 24 hours of the report being finalized.
Further criticism is leveled at the vague investigation policy provided by the NWRHA. The document leaves out key details including how investigators are selected, what safeguards are in place to guarantee independence and transparency, and a clear timeline for completing the work. The firm also questions why neither the NWRHA’s investigation policy nor its official patient charter of rights are easily accessible or prominently displayed on the authority’s public website.
The correspondence also defends the mothers’ recent decision to launch a public appeal for funds to hire a foreign medical specialist to conduct an independent review. Ramlogan’s team notes that the families have been completely shut out of both the NWRHA’s internal investigation and a parallel probe conducted by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), leaving them with no other option to secure independent evidence after the NWRHA refused to cover the associated costs.
In a startling disclosure, the legal team confirmed that between September 2015 and January 1, 2024, the NWRHA spent a total of TT $26.2 million on legal fees defending itself against medical negligence claims. The firm is urging the authority to reverse its position on funding independent expert analysis, arguing that clear, unbiased evidence is the only way to definitively confirm whether negligence contributed to the infant deaths.
This latest formal communication comes as Ramlogan has renewed public criticism over the prolonged lack of resolution for bereaved families, who have already endured two years of litigation without securing compensation for their losses.
The public legal clash follows a recent court ruling last Thursday, where Justice Robin Mohammed ordered the NWRHA to release an internal investigative report into the deaths of seven newborns during a previous bacterial outbreak at the Port of Spain General Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. In his ruling, the judge pushed back against the NWRHA’s attempt to withhold the report by claiming legal professional privilege, dismissing the argument as a “construct of convenience” designed to avoid accountability.