Gov. Hochul must approve a new law to help in wrongful death cases

I’ll never forget the day I woke up to my fiancée, Amber, jumping on the bed and yelling, “We’re pregnant.” Within two minutes, she was buying baby books. I remember how excited she was. And I was, too.

But months later, that excitement was cut short and replaced with immeasurable anguish.

April 20, 2020, is a date that is forever burned in my mind: the day I lost the love of my life, Amber Rose Isaac, and the day my son, Elias, was born.

In New York City, where Amber gave birth at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, Black mothers are up to 12 times more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes, according to the most recently released data, from the New York City Department of Health in 2018. And the trend only worsened during COVID.

The CDC blames the disparity on underlying chronic conditions and the quality of health care available to Black women, as well as “structural racism and implicit bias.”

However, a UN analysis published this month dispelled the longstanding myth that Black mothers are genetically more prone to disease, citing “systemic racism and sexism in medical systems” — read: medical malpractice — as the real reason Black women are more likely to experience serious complications or even death.

One way we can incentivize against racism and sexism continuing to infiltrate our systems is to hold perpetrators liable for the consequences of their misconduct.

Manhattan State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Brooklyn Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein have made that possible through the Grieving Families Act. The bill they sponsored would hold bad actors accountable for the emotional damage they inflict on families who lose loved ones due to someone else’s wrongful actions — families like mine. The Legislature previously passed this bill, and did so again this year, and now, for a second time, it awaits Gov. Hochul’s signature. This bill will increase accountability, which will in turn lead to increased patient safety.

Amber’s death, a complication of HELP syndrome, which was overlooked entirely by her medical team, was 100% preventable. People rarely die of HELP. The April my son was born, Amber — who was completing her master’s degree — tweeted about how she would write an exposé on “dealing with incompetent doctors.”

In the end, Amber bled out during an emergency cesarean section. I wasn’t allowed in the room, but later, learned her blood wouldn’t clot; it was like water. The hospital took her uterus in a bid to stop the bleeding, but it was too late.

As a student and expecting parent at the time of her death Amber had little income. New York laws, which date back to the pre-Civil War era, say that a jury cannot consider the grief and emotional anguish of her surviving family members; not even the pain our son, Elias, feels growing up without his mother.

I support the Grieving Families Act, not only because our current backward and outdated system deeply denies a form of justice to my family, and countless others across the state, but because it enables claim-prone doctors to keep on harming patients.

In the terrible aftermath of Amber’s death, her mother and I began to advocate for Black maternal health, teaching racial bias awareness to medical students at the nation’s top universities, testifying at hearings before the New York City Council and Legislature, and even joining Vice President Kamala Harris as a voice for equity.

But without legal changes, New York will continue to be one of the most dangerous places for Black families to give birth.

In my time advocating for maternal health, meeting with birthing and doula groups in the Bronx, I’ve come to realize that my family’s situation is not an anomaly. Amber’s death is not an outlier, but a part of a tragic, but preventable, trend.

I believe we must exhaust every avenue to stop the epidemic of maternal mortality that is underway in our city, state and country.

If Amber’s physicians had not neglected her care, she would be with us today. Those responsible for her death should be fully accountable for the consequences of their actions. This would go a long way toward preventing other women from dying for the same reasons.

Amber’s last words, uttered as one last act of bravery, to comfort me as she was wheeled into the operating room, were, “All three of us are going home.” Only two of us made it.

Gov. Hochul must sign the Grieving Families Act if we ever hope to correct the dire — and worsening — trend of maternal deaths in our state.

McIntyre is the founder of SaveARose Foundation, a maternal health nonprofit.