April 25, 2025 • 18 mins
As part of the Black Information Network's 'Black Maternal Health' awareness campaign, Dr. Vanessa Tyler shares the story of Jose Perez & Christine Fields. In 2023, Jose's fiancée Christine died while giving birth to their son, Anuel, during emergency C-section surgery. Jose talks about the difficulties he experienced and witnessed while trying to advocate for Christine's care, including racism and alleged negligence. These are just some of the disparities that pregnant Black women routinely face, leading to a maternal mortality rate 9 times greater than other women.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
We are in the delivery room, a baby was just born.
Welcome to the world. How the most joyous time can
also be the most tragic.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Like just to look at her eyes was like it
was just she had just was no longer at that moment, and.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
She was dying right before you and the.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Nurse called cold blue and that was the last time
I saw Christine's eyes.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
The story of Christine Fields, a Black mother who died
after giving birth in black Land and now as a
brown person who just feels so invisible.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And where we're from, brothers and sisters. I welcome you
to this joyful and.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Day and we celebrate freedom.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Where we are I know someone heard something and where
we're going.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
We the people means all the people.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
The Black Information Network presents Blackland with your host Vanessa Tyler.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Black women dying during childbirth or soon after is alarming.
It's also tragic and it can be prevented, but it
keeps happening. It's been about a year and a half
since Jose Perez lost the love of his life, the
mother to his children, Christine Fields.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Jose Welcome, how you doing? Thank you for having me first?
Speaker 1 (01:27):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I always say okay, which is will traver just you know,
just for what I'm really going to do, which is
I'm really not.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Okay, it's still a lot going on, obviously, it's what
it's It has been about a year and a half,
right is that right?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yes, it's seventeen months now since Christine passed away.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
How are the children? Start with the oldest? Liam? Then Nova?
Then and well, okay.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Liam, Liam is six, Lim is going to be seven
in July. Liam is He's Liam has special little special needs,
well not really special needs, but Liam is sort of
Liam is a little person. So Liam is, Liam is
going to be seven years old. Liam is probably the
size of a of a fifteen month old baby. Liam
(02:21):
has skeleton this place here. His health though he's doing
fine health wise, and to the loss of his mom's
has been really hard for him. Has been really hard
for him. He just doesn't grasp the arm. I don't
think he grasped the whole concept of death yet because
(02:43):
he's only going to be seven years old. So to him,
it's more his mom's not being here is more like
a video game, I believe in his mind. Nova is four,
she's going to be five in December. She's doing very well,
she's just enrolled it this year in pre K. She
just started pre K this year. She's doing very well
(03:06):
in school. She's I say, very smart for her age.
So her teachers is like, she has conversations like an
eight nine year old. Already. Nova understands that her mom's
is not here. She grabs she grabs it in a
different way. She talks to the sky. She talks to
(03:26):
her mom. She tells him. She always tells everyone her
mom's and it's an angel. Her mom has super power.
She could change her wings different colors. Her mom is
always watching over her. Her moms hasn't left her. Her
mom is always here with her. Those are the content
conversations Nova has. Nobody's a very small intelligent person, honestly,
(03:51):
and it's been a blessing having nov No. But it's
what keeps me, I would say, the happiest. She it's
just her sweetness and her kindness. Yeah. And then going
to the baby Anuel, Well, Anuel was seventeen months old. Now,
from what I see, he's doing, his growth is doing.
He's doing well as far as his growth, as far
(04:14):
as his you know, the concept of learning and everything
is to me seems like he's doing fine.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
May I take you back to November twenty twenty three,
the time Christine was going through labor at Woodhall Hospital
in Brooklyn. She was looking forward to a natural birth.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yes, yes, she's definitely was looking forward to a natural birth.
She was working with a midwife. She had midwife that
worked at the hospital that she was in contact with prior.
I was prior birth, which was a nova and Christine
felt comfortable being around, being with her and having her
(04:56):
there on the morning of November twelve when we on
our way to the hospital. Prior to that, Christine had
phoned her and told her that she might be coming
in on the twelve, and the midwife told the Unfortunately,
if she came in at the same time, she wouldn't
be able to be there because she was working a
twenty four hour shift. So that's how we didn't end
(05:18):
up having the same midwife again.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Her midwife off was like a prelude to what would
be an awful early morning sliding into a deadly day.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
At some point, they say, the babies hervor, the babies
heart rate, the babies in distrust, his heart rated dropping.
Doctors start talking about the sea section.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Sea section that's not what Christine Shields and her fiance
Jose Perez planned at all. The thirty year old black
mother had two babies before. She wanted a natural birth. First,
her midwife was off after working a long shift. Now
the couple was faced with this, they were not sure
what to do. There was panic, especially from Christine.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I like meet the night of Christine. I really didn't
want to make a further I didn't really want to
show too much energy because I wanted to be as
farm as possible. But then even then, when they were
they were telling Christine about the sea section, telling us
about the sea section, and Christina's crying and I'm trying
to talk with Christine, they called a whole bunch of
security to make me feel uncomfortable. If you get what
(06:19):
I'm saying, Oh.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
We get it. He says. It's something especially black people face,
a preemptive shut up by having security lurk around, he believes,
to keep him from advocating.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I'm not acting like, you know, like rowdy. I'm not
acting up. I'm not I'm not causing a situation. But
they quick called security to make me feel like if
I speak up or and I start getting like if
I start getting upset by any form of shape because
of what they're doing, then they would escort me out
the hospital. So you see how it plays out. So
(06:52):
if I speak up, I'm you know, I'm making it
difficult for them.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Jose Perez says he could see nurses taking notes.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
They turn around and write down, and they chart that
I'm being difficult to deal with and I'm not letting
them do their job. That's a form of racism. Like,
that's a form of racism, you know.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
So they agreed emergency C section. The baby was in distress.
It was during the operation something went very wrong. Perez says.
The obstetrician made a deadly mistake. The joy their son,
Anuel was perfect Dad Jose Perez saw him being cleaned
up for his new life journey, but his fiance back
(07:30):
in recovery was not doing well. She was dying.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
When I got back to Christine, Christine's just like now
looking very well. Her tongue is like actually looking very dry,
actually gray. Her lips are looking very ashy, and she
did didn't seem well harm. I asked the nurse, could
I give a water? The nurse said no, she couldn't
have water because she just had an operation. The nurse
(07:56):
proceeded to give me ice chips, told me to rub
them on her lips. When I propped Christine's head up
to rub the ice chips on her lips, I had
just fell back to the side like that way, and
like just to look at her eyes was like it
was just she had just was no longer at.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
That moment, and she was dying right before you.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
And then nurse called the cold blue and that was
the last time I saw Christine's eyes.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
In the end, it was doctor's error and artery in
her uterine was accidentally severed, and the obstetrician who was fired,
by the way, didn't report it, and basically Christine bloed
to death. Is that accurate?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah, so they did. They digged her uterine. I think
that the accidentally kind of cut her actually was going
to procedure, proceeded not to tell his colleagues of the
accident that had happened while doing the procedure.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
A state investigation with the New York State Department of
Health blames what happened on her troubling lapse by the
surgical team. Reports are the doctor who cut the artery
never mentioned it.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
At some point he tried to be paid. I don't
think with anyone's knowledge knowing that that happened, and he
didn't communicate with the staff, with the rest of the staff,
or with the with the staff that was watching over her,
and they proceeded to put her in the recovery room
(09:26):
where I came in contact with her, and that's where
Christine had blood hamorrhag and she ended up passing away.
She ended up dying from internal bleeding.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
And just like that. Jose Perez was a single father
of three.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
So she laid there for X amount of hours, just
internally bleeding and dying. On October twenty ninth, for twenty
twenty three, doctor Daniels, the same doctor he had just
caused the infant's death. I was like twelve days before
Christine's death. He had just caused the.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
The doctor was fired from Woodhall Hospital in Brooklyn, New York.
But Perez says if he were fired the month before
when the baby he delivered died, maybe his sweet Christine
would still be with us. Perez says that same seventy
year old doctor was working in an overnight shift beyond
the restrictions, So.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, certain quite till you're deready. That had disqualified him
from being on more than two twenty four hour shifts
per year, and they proceeded to put him back on.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
He says not enough is done for black maternal safety.
For the record, Woodhall Hospital where Christine and several black
women have died. In past statements, the hospital acknowledges the disparities.
Black women are significantly more likely to die from pregnancy
related complications, and the hospital is committed to addressing the problem.
But of course we know it's not just one hospital
(10:54):
where black women die more than white women. It's nationwide.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
There's no law that doctors get evaluated. This is one
thing I'm pushing for. I'm pushing for a law for
doctors to get evaluated after a certain maternal mortality case.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
What happened thrus Perez from father protector to family advocate is.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Definitely something I take on because at Christine, I love
Christine so much. I have so much love for Christine.
I think I cannot sit back and advocate for like.
I have to advocate for Christine. I really have to.
And I realized that advocating for Christine was their course
(11:32):
for advocating for other mothers that are here, mothers to be,
mothers to come soon to be, you know, And and
it's been rough, has been rough.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
When he means rough, he means rough. Everything fell apart
when Christine died during childbirth. In fact, he says, at
first the hospital was reluctant to give him his baby,
complicated because the couple was not married.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
So me and Christine had a wedding planner already. We
had a bit of supposed to get I've been twenty
twenty three, but we pushed it off to twenty twenty four,
to August of twenty twenty four because she was pregnant
and we were having the baby and we weren't doing
a baby shower with Me and Christine lived together since
I got with Christine. Seeing that I started talking, I
(12:17):
started being around Christine. I still was Christine at her
mom's house for a while, but I always had my
own place. Once Christine gave birth to my daughter Nova,
I told her I'd be like, you know, this is
that you were just in your mom's in the room
in the mom's place. You could just come live with me.
Let's go. I have a two bedroom living room, kitchen,
(12:37):
a big apartment, a whole apartment, just come live with me.
And she came and stay with me, and then we
moved to Long Island City. So when Christine passed away,
we were living at Long Island City. We had just
moved into the apartment in April twenty twenty three. The
least was under her name. So when Christine passed away,
(12:59):
I guess her family felt like the apartment belonged to
her because the lae was under her name, and they
called management. I got illegally locked out with the children
from the apartment. I just recently got back in the
apartment March of this year. I was locked out for
fourteen months.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Family feuding, not just over an apartment, over the children too.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
When I got with Christine, Christine had already had Liam,
and you know, I decided to raise Liam. I've been
raising Liam for I was raising them for the last
past five years with Christine. So the grandmother felt like
she wanted him, and the way things went, they went
about things and took them away from me. It was
(13:42):
very heartbreaking. I met him so much, I love him
so much. He's my child. I don't look at him
no different from the baby from my daughter. Nov I
look at him just as equal as the other two,
or Nova and the baby. It was always me and
Liam together everywhere I went. Liam was always with me.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Right now, Liam, who was born with Dwarfism and is
sixty years old, is being raised by Christine's mother.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
She lost the daughter. I don't know what that feels like,
you know, I can only imagine.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Perez is raising his and Christine's daughter, Nova and the
newborn and Anuel, who didn't have a birth certificate yet
filled out. Perez had the added burden to prove he
was the father. He was going from court to court,
cutting through red tape, all while raising two small children alone.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
I had to, you know, fight a family court for
certain things. I had to fight in the house in
court for the apartment. I didn't have no help for
my baby for the first year. Were wig with no
medical insurance for his first fifteen months because it was
hard for me to obtained his paperwork, and they would
giving me a hishle to obtain a birth certificate, to
(14:55):
obtain associated curvity card. And it's been a rough seventeen months.
It's not easy for for all the everybody's situation is
not the same, but Unfortunately, my situation was this way
and it's been really rough. So I don't think there's
one faut out here that's in my situation that had
(15:15):
it easy, honestly speaking. And then it comes with a lot.
Maternal death comes with a lot. It just doesn't come
with missing your partner. It doesn't just come with the
loss of your partner. It doesn't just come with you
being stuck with a baby. Or it could come with
housing issues, it could come with family caught issues, it
(15:37):
could come with family issues.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
You know, even in his grief, he's fighting for fathers
left to fend for themselves and the black mothers who
are still dying.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Like I'm doing my best. Like Chris, Christine was always
into the community. Christine was always like ready to advocate
and ready to take that role and always play the
part in that role in the community. And I was
the opposite. I was just a working person. I would
just go to work, drove my truck and just do
my job and just come home and take care of
my family. Now I'm just now I do through the opposite,
(16:11):
and now I just stay home, take care of the
family and just advocate whenever I could go out there
and just advocate for Christine and everyone else. Like I said,
like I can name a few people that passed away
since Christine passed away in seventeen months, I can name.
I can give you a handful of people that passed
away to maternal depths. And it's sad. It's really sad
(16:31):
because all these depths are preventableth.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Jose Perez and Christine's family are suing. The case still pending.
Perez says, what's needed is more than a lawsuit.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
I'm pushing the Greetings Families Act, um governor Hochul vetoed,
the Greeding's Families Act three times, you know, and the
Greeding's Families that covered, you know, families and mothers and
family members getting compensated to run for death case, you know,
for pain and stuff, for grief and anguish. And you
(17:02):
know New York State doesn't have a law that you know,
never owe people accountable in that nature which a lord
who is not getting justice, A lot of people say, hey,
get a lawyer, your father, lawsuit, A laws who is
not justice, a losso is just a small fraction of
to me, is like a family proven what happened, and
(17:22):
justice is really people being held accountable.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
He wants us all to take up this fight to
get passage of the Grieving Family Act. Get involved wherever
you live. Go to Movement to Birthliberation dot com for
more information. Also, Jose does have a GoFundMe page Justice
for Christine Fields and Jose Perez seven one eight bk
(17:47):
on Instagram. He could use words of encouragement because again,
it has not been easy.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
I've been trying. Honestly, I'm trying. I'm trying. I show
a strongness on the outside, but on the inside, my
heart is so broken, like honestly speaking, like honestly speaking,
like I feel like every day, every day when I
wake up, I feel like I got him by a bus.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Before we parted, I got to meet Anuel.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Hi, hi pablo Hello.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
He was too preoccupied watching Barney and was really into it.
He's seventeen months old. Never met his mother. Oh he
is adorable.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Okay, Hi Buddy, Hey, Hi.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Jose Perez single father raising his children after his fiance died,
giving birth. Jose, thank you, big hugs to your beautiful children.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Thank you, thank you. I appreciate you. I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
I'm Vanessa Tyler. Look for a new episode of black
Land every week.
We are in the delivery room, a baby was just born.
Welcome to the world. How the most joyous time can
also be the most tragic.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Like just to look at her eyes was like it
was just she had just was no longer at that moment, and.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
She was dying right before you and the.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Nurse called cold blue and that was the last time
I saw Christine's eyes.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
The story of Christine Fields, a Black mother who died
after giving birth in black Land and now as a
brown person who just feels so invisible.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And where we're from, brothers and sisters. I welcome you
to this joyful and.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Day and we celebrate freedom.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Where we are I know someone heard something and where
we're going.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
We the people means all the people.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
The Black Information Network presents Blackland with your host Vanessa Tyler.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Black women dying during childbirth or soon after is alarming.
It's also tragic and it can be prevented, but it
keeps happening. It's been about a year and a half
since Jose Perez lost the love of his life, the
mother to his children, Christine Fields.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Jose Welcome, how you doing? Thank you for having me first?
Speaker 1 (01:27):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I always say okay, which is will traver just you know,
just for what I'm really going to do, which is
I'm really not.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Okay, it's still a lot going on, obviously, it's what
it's It has been about a year and a half,
right is that right?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yes, it's seventeen months now since Christine passed away.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
How are the children? Start with the oldest? Liam? Then Nova?
Then and well, okay.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Liam, Liam is six, Lim is going to be seven
in July. Liam is He's Liam has special little special needs,
well not really special needs, but Liam is sort of
Liam is a little person. So Liam is, Liam is
going to be seven years old. Liam is probably the
size of a of a fifteen month old baby. Liam
(02:21):
has skeleton this place here. His health though he's doing
fine health wise, and to the loss of his mom's
has been really hard for him. Has been really hard
for him. He just doesn't grasp the arm. I don't
think he grasped the whole concept of death yet because
(02:43):
he's only going to be seven years old. So to him,
it's more his mom's not being here is more like
a video game, I believe in his mind. Nova is four,
she's going to be five in December. She's doing very well,
she's just enrolled it this year in pre K. She
just started pre K this year. She's doing very well
(03:06):
in school. She's I say, very smart for her age.
So her teachers is like, she has conversations like an
eight nine year old. Already. Nova understands that her mom's
is not here. She grabs she grabs it in a
different way. She talks to the sky. She talks to
(03:26):
her mom. She tells him. She always tells everyone her
mom's and it's an angel. Her mom has super power.
She could change her wings different colors. Her mom is
always watching over her. Her moms hasn't left her. Her
mom is always here with her. Those are the content
conversations Nova has. Nobody's a very small intelligent person, honestly,
(03:51):
and it's been a blessing having nov No. But it's
what keeps me, I would say, the happiest. She it's
just her sweetness and her kindness. Yeah. And then going
to the baby Anuel, Well, Anuel was seventeen months old. Now,
from what I see, he's doing, his growth is doing.
He's doing well as far as his growth, as far
(04:14):
as his you know, the concept of learning and everything
is to me seems like he's doing fine.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
May I take you back to November twenty twenty three,
the time Christine was going through labor at Woodhall Hospital
in Brooklyn. She was looking forward to a natural birth.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yes, yes, she's definitely was looking forward to a natural birth.
She was working with a midwife. She had midwife that
worked at the hospital that she was in contact with prior.
I was prior birth, which was a nova and Christine
felt comfortable being around, being with her and having her
(04:56):
there on the morning of November twelve when we on
our way to the hospital. Prior to that, Christine had
phoned her and told her that she might be coming
in on the twelve, and the midwife told the Unfortunately,
if she came in at the same time, she wouldn't
be able to be there because she was working a
twenty four hour shift. So that's how we didn't end
(05:18):
up having the same midwife again.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Her midwife off was like a prelude to what would
be an awful early morning sliding into a deadly day.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
At some point, they say, the babies hervor, the babies
heart rate, the babies in distrust, his heart rated dropping.
Doctors start talking about the sea section.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Sea section that's not what Christine Shields and her fiance
Jose Perez planned at all. The thirty year old black
mother had two babies before. She wanted a natural birth. First,
her midwife was off after working a long shift. Now
the couple was faced with this, they were not sure
what to do. There was panic, especially from Christine.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I like meet the night of Christine. I really didn't
want to make a further I didn't really want to
show too much energy because I wanted to be as
farm as possible. But then even then, when they were
they were telling Christine about the sea section, telling us
about the sea section, and Christina's crying and I'm trying
to talk with Christine, they called a whole bunch of
security to make me feel uncomfortable. If you get what
(06:19):
I'm saying, Oh.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
We get it. He says. It's something especially black people face,
a preemptive shut up by having security lurk around, he believes,
to keep him from advocating.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I'm not acting like, you know, like rowdy. I'm not
acting up. I'm not I'm not causing a situation. But
they quick called security to make me feel like if
I speak up or and I start getting like if
I start getting upset by any form of shape because
of what they're doing, then they would escort me out
the hospital. So you see how it plays out. So
(06:52):
if I speak up, I'm you know, I'm making it
difficult for them.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Jose Perez says he could see nurses taking notes.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
They turn around and write down, and they chart that
I'm being difficult to deal with and I'm not letting
them do their job. That's a form of racism. Like,
that's a form of racism, you know.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
So they agreed emergency C section. The baby was in distress.
It was during the operation something went very wrong. Perez says.
The obstetrician made a deadly mistake. The joy their son,
Anuel was perfect Dad Jose Perez saw him being cleaned
up for his new life journey, but his fiance back
(07:30):
in recovery was not doing well. She was dying.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
When I got back to Christine, Christine's just like now
looking very well. Her tongue is like actually looking very dry,
actually gray. Her lips are looking very ashy, and she
did didn't seem well harm. I asked the nurse, could
I give a water? The nurse said no, she couldn't
have water because she just had an operation. The nurse
(07:56):
proceeded to give me ice chips, told me to rub
them on her lips. When I propped Christine's head up
to rub the ice chips on her lips, I had
just fell back to the side like that way, and
like just to look at her eyes was like it
was just she had just was no longer at.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
That moment, and she was dying right before you.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
And then nurse called the cold blue and that was
the last time I saw Christine's eyes.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
In the end, it was doctor's error and artery in
her uterine was accidentally severed, and the obstetrician who was fired,
by the way, didn't report it, and basically Christine bloed
to death. Is that accurate?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah, so they did. They digged her uterine. I think
that the accidentally kind of cut her actually was going
to procedure, proceeded not to tell his colleagues of the
accident that had happened while doing the procedure.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
A state investigation with the New York State Department of
Health blames what happened on her troubling lapse by the
surgical team. Reports are the doctor who cut the artery
never mentioned it.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
At some point he tried to be paid. I don't
think with anyone's knowledge knowing that that happened, and he
didn't communicate with the staff, with the rest of the staff,
or with the with the staff that was watching over her,
and they proceeded to put her in the recovery room
(09:26):
where I came in contact with her, and that's where
Christine had blood hamorrhag and she ended up passing away.
She ended up dying from internal bleeding.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
And just like that. Jose Perez was a single father
of three.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
So she laid there for X amount of hours, just
internally bleeding and dying. On October twenty ninth, for twenty
twenty three, doctor Daniels, the same doctor he had just
caused the infant's death. I was like twelve days before
Christine's death. He had just caused the.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
The doctor was fired from Woodhall Hospital in Brooklyn, New York.
But Perez says if he were fired the month before
when the baby he delivered died, maybe his sweet Christine
would still be with us. Perez says that same seventy
year old doctor was working in an overnight shift beyond
the restrictions, So.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, certain quite till you're deready. That had disqualified him
from being on more than two twenty four hour shifts
per year, and they proceeded to put him back on.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
He says not enough is done for black maternal safety.
For the record, Woodhall Hospital where Christine and several black
women have died. In past statements, the hospital acknowledges the disparities.
Black women are significantly more likely to die from pregnancy
related complications, and the hospital is committed to addressing the problem.
But of course we know it's not just one hospital
(10:54):
where black women die more than white women. It's nationwide.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
There's no law that doctors get evaluated. This is one
thing I'm pushing for. I'm pushing for a law for
doctors to get evaluated after a certain maternal mortality case.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
What happened thrus Perez from father protector to family advocate is.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Definitely something I take on because at Christine, I love
Christine so much. I have so much love for Christine.
I think I cannot sit back and advocate for like.
I have to advocate for Christine. I really have to.
And I realized that advocating for Christine was their course
(11:32):
for advocating for other mothers that are here, mothers to be,
mothers to come soon to be, you know, And and
it's been rough, has been rough.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
When he means rough, he means rough. Everything fell apart
when Christine died during childbirth. In fact, he says, at
first the hospital was reluctant to give him his baby,
complicated because the couple was not married.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
So me and Christine had a wedding planner already. We
had a bit of supposed to get I've been twenty
twenty three, but we pushed it off to twenty twenty four,
to August of twenty twenty four because she was pregnant
and we were having the baby and we weren't doing
a baby shower with Me and Christine lived together since
I got with Christine. Seeing that I started talking, I
(12:17):
started being around Christine. I still was Christine at her
mom's house for a while, but I always had my
own place. Once Christine gave birth to my daughter Nova,
I told her I'd be like, you know, this is
that you were just in your mom's in the room
in the mom's place. You could just come live with me.
Let's go. I have a two bedroom living room, kitchen,
(12:37):
a big apartment, a whole apartment, just come live with me.
And she came and stay with me, and then we
moved to Long Island City. So when Christine passed away,
we were living at Long Island City. We had just
moved into the apartment in April twenty twenty three. The
least was under her name. So when Christine passed away,
(12:59):
I guess her family felt like the apartment belonged to
her because the lae was under her name, and they
called management. I got illegally locked out with the children
from the apartment. I just recently got back in the
apartment March of this year. I was locked out for
fourteen months.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Family feuding, not just over an apartment, over the children too.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
When I got with Christine, Christine had already had Liam,
and you know, I decided to raise Liam. I've been
raising Liam for I was raising them for the last
past five years with Christine. So the grandmother felt like
she wanted him, and the way things went, they went
about things and took them away from me. It was
(13:42):
very heartbreaking. I met him so much, I love him
so much. He's my child. I don't look at him
no different from the baby from my daughter. Nov I
look at him just as equal as the other two,
or Nova and the baby. It was always me and
Liam together everywhere I went. Liam was always with me.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Right now, Liam, who was born with Dwarfism and is
sixty years old, is being raised by Christine's mother.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
She lost the daughter. I don't know what that feels like,
you know, I can only imagine.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Perez is raising his and Christine's daughter, Nova and the
newborn and Anuel, who didn't have a birth certificate yet
filled out. Perez had the added burden to prove he
was the father. He was going from court to court,
cutting through red tape, all while raising two small children alone.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
I had to, you know, fight a family court for
certain things. I had to fight in the house in
court for the apartment. I didn't have no help for
my baby for the first year. Were wig with no
medical insurance for his first fifteen months because it was
hard for me to obtained his paperwork, and they would
giving me a hishle to obtain a birth certificate, to
(14:55):
obtain associated curvity card. And it's been a rough seventeen months.
It's not easy for for all the everybody's situation is
not the same, but Unfortunately, my situation was this way
and it's been really rough. So I don't think there's
one faut out here that's in my situation that had
(15:15):
it easy, honestly speaking. And then it comes with a lot.
Maternal death comes with a lot. It just doesn't come
with missing your partner. It doesn't just come with the
loss of your partner. It doesn't just come with you
being stuck with a baby. Or it could come with
housing issues, it could come with family caught issues, it
(15:37):
could come with family issues.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
You know, even in his grief, he's fighting for fathers
left to fend for themselves and the black mothers who
are still dying.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Like I'm doing my best. Like Chris, Christine was always
into the community. Christine was always like ready to advocate
and ready to take that role and always play the
part in that role in the community. And I was
the opposite. I was just a working person. I would
just go to work, drove my truck and just do
my job and just come home and take care of
my family. Now I'm just now I do through the opposite,
(16:11):
and now I just stay home, take care of the
family and just advocate whenever I could go out there
and just advocate for Christine and everyone else. Like I said,
like I can name a few people that passed away
since Christine passed away in seventeen months, I can name.
I can give you a handful of people that passed
away to maternal depths. And it's sad. It's really sad
(16:31):
because all these depths are preventableth.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Jose Perez and Christine's family are suing. The case still pending.
Perez says, what's needed is more than a lawsuit.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
I'm pushing the Greetings Families Act, um governor Hochul vetoed,
the Greeding's Families Act three times, you know, and the
Greeding's Families that covered, you know, families and mothers and
family members getting compensated to run for death case, you know,
for pain and stuff, for grief and anguish. And you
(17:02):
know New York State doesn't have a law that you know,
never owe people accountable in that nature which a lord
who is not getting justice, A lot of people say, hey,
get a lawyer, your father, lawsuit, A laws who is
not justice, a losso is just a small fraction of
to me, is like a family proven what happened, and
(17:22):
justice is really people being held accountable.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
He wants us all to take up this fight to
get passage of the Grieving Family Act. Get involved wherever
you live. Go to Movement to Birthliberation dot com for
more information. Also, Jose does have a GoFundMe page Justice
for Christine Fields and Jose Perez seven one eight bk
(17:47):
on Instagram. He could use words of encouragement because again,
it has not been easy.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
I've been trying. Honestly, I'm trying. I'm trying. I show
a strongness on the outside, but on the inside, my
heart is so broken, like honestly speaking, like honestly speaking,
like I feel like every day, every day when I
wake up, I feel like I got him by a bus.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Before we parted, I got to meet Anuel.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Hi, hi pablo Hello.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
He was too preoccupied watching Barney and was really into it.
He's seventeen months old. Never met his mother. Oh he
is adorable.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Okay, Hi Buddy, Hey, Hi.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Jose Perez single father raising his children after his fiance died,
giving birth. Jose, thank you, big hugs to your beautiful children.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Thank you, thank you. I appreciate you. I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
I'm Vanessa Tyler. Look for a new episode of black
Land every week.
Host
Vanessa Tyler
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