A New York City mother's pregnancy had not yet reached six months when she went into premature labor with her twins. She was rushed to the hospital, but died minutes after delivery.
Doctors at Richmond University Medical Center tried to deliver Victoria Rexach's twin girls via natural childbirth in late August. Her high-risk specialist doctor had wanted her to have a cesarean section because of her two previous C-section births, the family told NBC New York.
"That's the first thing I asked, is why didn't they give her a C-section," said Rexach's grandmother Detrice Williams. "She was a good girl."
The babies, named Chali and Chassidy, died two minutes after birth and were classified as "non-viable fetuses," according to a hospital statement. Rexach lost a lot of blood and went into cardiac arrest before she died.
"She screamed, and then she was just holding my hand and then her eyes closed and I kept smacking her face, telling her, 'Don't fall asleep on me, don't fall asleep,'" the baby's father Tafari Brathwaite told NBC New York. "She looked at me and said 'OK' and then closed her eyes, and that was the last time I saw her."
The medical examiner has Rexach's case under investigation, but has not yet determined a cause of death. Her family believes she would still be alive if doctors had performed a C-section.
"She told doctors she needed to have a C-section because she was high-risk and they knew that," city activist Awilda Cordero, who is working with the family, told the New York Post. "She told them she couldn't push but they made her push and they let her die."
Brathwaite plans to sue the hospital for the death of his common-law wife, according to the Post.
Rexach also had two other young children, ages 4 and 10. Her grandmother said they are still trying to process the loss of their mother.
"My two little great-grands are now without their mother," Williams told NBC New York.
Rexach's mother, Robin Williams, added, "I know they want her, they wanna ask for her, but they see so much pain and suffering, they walk away when they see us crying."
The hospital expressed its condolences for the family in a statement.
"The hospital and our staff who provided care to the patient worked diligently and heroically to save the life of this young woman, who had a very complex obstetrical history."
They further claim they took all necessary steps to save Rexach.
