A Death in Childbirth Raises New Questions About a Hospital

Good morning. It’s Friday. Today we’ll explore deepening concerns over maternal health care at a Brooklyn hospital where three women have died during childbirth since 2020. We’ll also look at a hearing in the case of Daniel Penny, who choked Jordan Neely to death in a subway last year.

Family members of Bevorlin Garcia Barrios, a 24-year-old who died giving birth at Woodhull Medical Center in Brooklyn last month.Credit…Jackie Molloy for The New York Times

A pregnant woman nearing her due date went to the Woodhull Medical Center in Brooklyn in mid-September complaining of stomach pain and nausea. Three nights after hospital staff sent her home, the woman, a 24-year-old home health aide from Honduras, returned with worsened pain and was admitted. Just one day later, she died following her emergency C-section.

The woman, Bevorlin Garcia Barrios, is now the third to die at Woodhull during childbirth since 2020, according to a new report by my colleagues Joseph Goldstein and Wesley Parnell. The death adds to questions about the hospital’s ability to properly care for mothers and their babies — and about a continuing maternal health crisis.

Woodhull is viewed by medical and public health professionals as a weak link in the 11 public hospitals run by New York City. Government regulators were alarmed by a series of medical errors that they uncovered in two earlier maternal deaths, culminating in the loss of one doctor’s license and another doctor’s job.

Ms. Garcia Barrios’s death was not publicly reported until now, and whether hospital regulators are examining it remains unclear. The medical examiner’s office is still investigating her cause of death. But if there were errors in the hospital’s handling of her care, Woodhull could face pressure for increased staffing and new safety protocols or the closure of the maternity unit.