Athaliah Reynolds, Staff Reporter

Just a month after a Jamaican woman gave birth to a premature baby on a Cayman Airways flight to Jamaica, another Jamaican mother is mourning the death of her premature twins at a Cayman Islands hospital.

According to news reports coming out of the Cayman Islands, the 1.2 lb babies were born after only 24 weeks of pregnancy on November 7, but could not be sent off-island for the necessary medical care because their mother was underinsured.

They passed away on Friday, November 9.

No help from Jamaican hospitals

Robert Hamaty, Jamaican consul in the Cayman Islands, yesterday told The Gleaner in a telephone conversation that the consulate had contacted the Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay and the University Hospital of the West Indies in St. Andrew, seeking transfer for the mother and the infants. However, he was told that no ventilators were available.

"Our office contacted hospitals in Jamaica as soon as we were made aware of the premature births. Unfortunately, all ventilators in Jamaica were already in use," read a statement from the consulate.

"We were assured that the confirmation would be given as soon as the ventilators were available to accommodate the babies we had no guaranteed time, it was our hope that eventually the babies would have been able to obtain the required specialised care," it added.

He also said hospitals in the United States and The Bahamas were asking for fees within the region of US$500,000 because of the mother's limited insurance, but the consul did not have that kind of money. The mother's insurance policy only covered up to US$25,000 per incident of care.

According to the Jamaican consulate, the health insurance system in Cayman is failing low income-earning Jamaicans.