By Francine Black, Staff ReporterTHERE IS a new addition to Pansy Campbell and Roy McLean's household following the successful delivery on November 29 of their daughter, Arlene Jennifer McLean.
The baby weighed an impressive 9.5 pounds and was delivered at May Pen Hospital in Clarendon.
The birth of this baby however, they say, cannot fill the void that was created when they lost their second child who became known to Jamaica as 'Baby Pansy'. "Not quite, I still miss 'im", Ms. Campbell said in response to Gleaner queries.
The new mother said she had had no fears about the May Pen hospital, noting that all their problems had occurred at the Mandeville facility where the baby had been transferred after developing complications.
The couple said, however, that this time they took precautions to ensure that the baby Ms. Campbell gave birth to, was the baby they took home.
"Mi boyfriend see 'im," she said, as he was being born.
Ms. Campbell's plight with Baby Pansy began when the premature baby was transferred from the May Pen Hospital to the Mandeville Regional Hospital in Manchester late last August, after she developed respiratory distress syndrome. Medical officials said that the baby died in September 2002 and was taken to Lyn's Funeral Home after they tried, without success, to contact Ms. Campbell. Ms. Campbell has denied that she was difficult to reach.
She and Mr. McLean spent close to a year trying to convince the Southern Regional Health Authority (SRHA) and the Mandeville Hospital that a baby they identified as 'Baby Pansy' was not their child.
They claimed that their baby had shed her umbilical cord, while the incorrectly identified child still had a cord attached. On June 6, DNA tests proved the couple correct and led to the setting up of a four-member committee by the Ministry to investigate the matter.
Further tests were done on six other untagged babies at the funeral home, five of which came back negative. This led the Ministry to commence talks with Ms. Campbell and Mr. McLean in an effort to arrive at a settlement to compensate for the missing baby.
Despite the current talks, Ms. Campbell still believes that her baby is alive.
"A tief dem tief 'im, and mi want back da one deh," she said.
