Mother Jungeun Kwon and Baby Onyu Yim
Donation protected
To begin with, on June 22, our family sent two of our beloved family members to heaven.
We had one great big family. In my family, there is my father-in-law and mother-in-law, my wife, me, my sister-in-law, and my 2 brothers-in-law. Although our family is not wealthy, our mother-in-law used to run a famous restaurant in Coquitlam for a long time, so many people know them.
However, during this week, an incident occurred that put our happy family into a state of devastation.
My sister-in-law became pregnant last year and gave birth to a healthy boy at the hospital on June 15th, not long ago. The problem started here. After two days in the hospital after her birth, she was given the green light to go home on June 17th.
She was always healthy with no medical issues but as this was her first child and labour experience, she felt pain where the episiotomy was performed, but wasn’t severe enough to be considered abnormal.
Anyways, it was the first child in our family, and everyone was filled with joy and was thinking only of the happy times and memories ahead.
However, just a day later, on June 19th, my sister-in-law's condition began to worsen. She couldn't walk properly and was constantly dizzy and vomiting ... At that time, her husband was taking her baby to the hospital for a regular check-up and after he heard about my sister in law’s condition, he asked the doctor at the hospital and was told to immediately take his wife to the hospital as it was an emergency.
Immediately my father-in-law drove my sister in law to the hospital where she gave labour at and on the way to the hospital, she lost consciousness and collapsed. When she arrived, she was not breathing and had CPR performed on her right away and soon after needed a tube inserted through her nose to connect to her heart.
However, the obstetrics and gynecology department (where we were told to go) said there was nothing that they could do, and she was taken to a general hospital right away.
When she was transferred to the general hospital, her condition had already deteriorated and the doctors in the emergency room said that she needed to have a hysterectomy, so she went straight into surgery, but her condition was so bad that they had to stop the operation without stitching her stomach back up in the middle of the operation.
The doctors said that they would have to resume the surgery again in the morning after checking up on her condition and then the night of the 19th, we were told the shocking news from the doctors that she might not make it to the 20th. This put our whole family in shock and devastation and throughout the night, my sister-in-law suffered several cardiac arrests and had three surgeries performed on her just to keep her alive.
Throughout that night, my sister-in-law’s face and body was unrecognizable due to all the swelling, and we were told to prepare for her passing.
Meanwhile, the baby also started to get severely sick. When he first came home, there were no issues with his health as he was crying well, eating well, and pooping well but as time went by, the baby had no power in his small body and his stomach started to swell up. On Tuesday the 21st, my wife and I took the child to the Children's Hospital. At that time, the news that the child was being rushed to the hospital surprised the rest of the family who were at the hospital where my sister-in-law was fighting for her life.
When I took the child to the hospital, he was transferred from the emergency room to the intensive care unit, and many doctors came to check on the child's condition and began treatment.
A newborn baby who was just only 6 days old was having multiple needles inserted into his small body and was breathing through an oxygen respirator with cords all around where he was laying and struggling to breath. At that time, both the mother and baby were struggling to stay alive.
In the end, despite the efforts of the doctors at each hospital, the baby passed away at the children's hospital at 5 am on the 22nd, and the mother passed away at the general hospital at 1pm. Our family had to go back and forth between the two hospitals in one day just to send them both to heaven at the end. Our family is deep in sadness that words cannot describe.
Our family believes that this was due to a medical malpractice. The sister-in-law was very healthy prior to giving birth, but it is difficult to know what exactly happened during the process, especially with both of them passing on the same day.
Both hospitals say that the mother and child died from a bacterial infection, but the exact route of the infection is still unknown.
We were told from most if not all of the doctors that it was the first time they had ever seen a case like this throughout their careers. Even at the general hospital, there were more doctors who did not know about this bacteria (clostridium sordellii), as it was that hard to discover.
Through researching, I found that the chances of getting this disease is 1 in 100,000, so I kept asking myself.. with this tiny of a chance, why did it have to be our family? Why did my healthy sister-in-law, who was only 35 years old, have to pass away, and the baby was born less than a week ago have to leave this world that fast? How can her husband and our family live on after losing our beloved wife/daughter and baby?
Our family is taking into consideration the possibility that the bacterial infection was exposed through the umbilical cord during childbirth at the obstetrics and gynecology department and the possibility of infection during the removal of the placenta. So, our family has requested an autopsy of the baby and mother through a meeting.
Also, the obstetrics and gynecology department has defined this case as an accident and has set up its own team to find out what exactly happened and told our family that they will announce the results after their investigation.
The reason I am writing this is in the hopes that the tragedy, pain, and sadness that was unexpectedly brought upon our family will never happen to anyone else ever again.
In a situation where the exact cause is still very much unknown, I can't say for sure, but we hope that, even through medical litigation and investigation, the hospital will find out if there is a mistake and make a small contribution to the improvement of the medical system.
Thanks for reading this long statement. I ask that anyone who is reading this will pray for the baby and my sister-in-law who are in heaven now, and for our family as well. Any contribution or just sharing this page would be of very much help and consolation for our family. God Bless.
We had one great big family. In my family, there is my father-in-law and mother-in-law, my wife, me, my sister-in-law, and my 2 brothers-in-law. Although our family is not wealthy, our mother-in-law used to run a famous restaurant in Coquitlam for a long time, so many people know them.
However, during this week, an incident occurred that put our happy family into a state of devastation.
My sister-in-law became pregnant last year and gave birth to a healthy boy at the hospital on June 15th, not long ago. The problem started here. After two days in the hospital after her birth, she was given the green light to go home on June 17th.
She was always healthy with no medical issues but as this was her first child and labour experience, she felt pain where the episiotomy was performed, but wasn’t severe enough to be considered abnormal.
Anyways, it was the first child in our family, and everyone was filled with joy and was thinking only of the happy times and memories ahead.
However, just a day later, on June 19th, my sister-in-law's condition began to worsen. She couldn't walk properly and was constantly dizzy and vomiting ... At that time, her husband was taking her baby to the hospital for a regular check-up and after he heard about my sister in law’s condition, he asked the doctor at the hospital and was told to immediately take his wife to the hospital as it was an emergency.
Immediately my father-in-law drove my sister in law to the hospital where she gave labour at and on the way to the hospital, she lost consciousness and collapsed. When she arrived, she was not breathing and had CPR performed on her right away and soon after needed a tube inserted through her nose to connect to her heart.
However, the obstetrics and gynecology department (where we were told to go) said there was nothing that they could do, and she was taken to a general hospital right away.
When she was transferred to the general hospital, her condition had already deteriorated and the doctors in the emergency room said that she needed to have a hysterectomy, so she went straight into surgery, but her condition was so bad that they had to stop the operation without stitching her stomach back up in the middle of the operation.
The doctors said that they would have to resume the surgery again in the morning after checking up on her condition and then the night of the 19th, we were told the shocking news from the doctors that she might not make it to the 20th. This put our whole family in shock and devastation and throughout the night, my sister-in-law suffered several cardiac arrests and had three surgeries performed on her just to keep her alive.
Throughout that night, my sister-in-law’s face and body was unrecognizable due to all the swelling, and we were told to prepare for her passing.
Meanwhile, the baby also started to get severely sick. When he first came home, there were no issues with his health as he was crying well, eating well, and pooping well but as time went by, the baby had no power in his small body and his stomach started to swell up. On Tuesday the 21st, my wife and I took the child to the Children's Hospital. At that time, the news that the child was being rushed to the hospital surprised the rest of the family who were at the hospital where my sister-in-law was fighting for her life.
When I took the child to the hospital, he was transferred from the emergency room to the intensive care unit, and many doctors came to check on the child's condition and began treatment.
A newborn baby who was just only 6 days old was having multiple needles inserted into his small body and was breathing through an oxygen respirator with cords all around where he was laying and struggling to breath. At that time, both the mother and baby were struggling to stay alive.
In the end, despite the efforts of the doctors at each hospital, the baby passed away at the children's hospital at 5 am on the 22nd, and the mother passed away at the general hospital at 1pm. Our family had to go back and forth between the two hospitals in one day just to send them both to heaven at the end. Our family is deep in sadness that words cannot describe.
Our family believes that this was due to a medical malpractice. The sister-in-law was very healthy prior to giving birth, but it is difficult to know what exactly happened during the process, especially with both of them passing on the same day.
Both hospitals say that the mother and child died from a bacterial infection, but the exact route of the infection is still unknown.
We were told from most if not all of the doctors that it was the first time they had ever seen a case like this throughout their careers. Even at the general hospital, there were more doctors who did not know about this bacteria (clostridium sordellii), as it was that hard to discover.
Through researching, I found that the chances of getting this disease is 1 in 100,000, so I kept asking myself.. with this tiny of a chance, why did it have to be our family? Why did my healthy sister-in-law, who was only 35 years old, have to pass away, and the baby was born less than a week ago have to leave this world that fast? How can her husband and our family live on after losing our beloved wife/daughter and baby?
Our family is taking into consideration the possibility that the bacterial infection was exposed through the umbilical cord during childbirth at the obstetrics and gynecology department and the possibility of infection during the removal of the placenta. So, our family has requested an autopsy of the baby and mother through a meeting.
Also, the obstetrics and gynecology department has defined this case as an accident and has set up its own team to find out what exactly happened and told our family that they will announce the results after their investigation.
The reason I am writing this is in the hopes that the tragedy, pain, and sadness that was unexpectedly brought upon our family will never happen to anyone else ever again.
In a situation where the exact cause is still very much unknown, I can't say for sure, but we hope that, even through medical litigation and investigation, the hospital will find out if there is a mistake and make a small contribution to the improvement of the medical system.
Thanks for reading this long statement. I ask that anyone who is reading this will pray for the baby and my sister-in-law who are in heaven now, and for our family as well. Any contribution or just sharing this page would be of very much help and consolation for our family. God Bless.
Organizer and beneficiary
Daewook Kim
Organizer
Coquitlam, BC
HYUCK KYOU YIM
Beneficiary