Detroit Grandmother Raising All 12 of Her Daughter's Children After She Dies Giving Birth
Patricia Pouncey is looking for answers after her daughter, Nikita Washington, died in December following complications of a C-section
A grandmother in Detroit, Mich., wants answers after her 35-year-old daughter died during childbirth, leaving her to raise all 12 of her children.
"I just have a lot of questions right now," Patricia Pouncey told CNN Monday. "I ask myself all the time, 'What went wrong?'"
Pouncey's daughter Nikita Washington went to Detroit's Harper University Hospital alone in December because her husband was incarcerated, the grandmother told CNN.
On the night of Dec. 22, she had a Cesarean section and gave birth to a healthy baby boy, but the family found out the next day she died of complications following the surgery.
A death certificate from the Wayne County Clerk obtained by CNN said that Washington died from a "postpartum hemorrhage" and "complications from multiple Cesarean sections."
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"I haven't talked to anyone from the hospital. I have not received anything from them. All I have is the death certificate," Pouncey told CNN.
In an interview with Fox 2 Detroit, Pouncey added that the family is still awaiting results from an autopsy.
"If she died naturally, I want to know. If one of them doctors did something, I wanna know that too," Pouncey said. "I'm hurt, I'm confused."
Related:NICU Nurse with 5 Kids Adopts Teen Mom She Cared for After the Girl Gave Birth to Triplets at 14
Representatives from Harper University Hospital did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.
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As a result of Washington's death, Pouncey is now left to raise all 12 of her daughter's children — who range in age from 3 months to 19 — as the family struggles to make sense of their loss and move forward.
"I already thought about it, and I'm gonna fight to keep them together and keep them with me," Pouncey told Fox 2 about raising the children under one roof.
"I'm just stuck right now, " she added. "I have all 12 of her kids right now with me, so I got to get a bigger house because my house is too small."
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