By Cathy Richards
A Linden family is seeking compensation for a nerve injury a five-year-old boy sustained while he was being treated by a nurse at the Linden Hospital Complex (LHC) for an unrelated ailment.
Meekaail Abdul-Ali was four years old when a nurse at the hospital administered an injection last year, during which the needle hit a nerve in his right thigh causing disabling damage for which he now needs long-term therapy.
Before the incident, Meekaail Abdul-Ali was a very energetic boy who loved running and playing with his neighbours, friends and siblings. “I coulda beat me big sister fuh run and she bigger than me you know,” he told Stabroek News on Thursday, but that was once upon a time before he was injured.
It all began on July 20, 2009 when Meekaail’s parents took him to the LHC as he had been vomiting the night before. At 6.45 am, his father Lindon Joseph said, he was seen by a nurse at the outpatient unit. After Joseph related his son’s problem to the nurse they were both escorted into the injection room where she administered an injection and gave Meekaail oral liquid medication.
After the injection and other medication were administered his father was advised to wait to have him see a medic and he complied. During this time Meekaail and his father were joined by his mother who facilitated the process of him seeing the medic. “I ran out for about an hour. I called my wife about 12:30 hrs to find out how he was doing and she told me he had just finished taking the IV that the medic had ordered,” recounted Joseph.
Upon his return to the hospital, Joseph was told by his wife that Meekaail had vomited again.
This led to them revisiting the medic who recommended that the child be admitted to hospital. He spent the night in the care of the nurses at the hospital and with his mother by his side.
“I got the biggest surprise of my life when I return to the hospital the following morning at approximately 05:30 hrs to see my son. Lying on the bed in tears was my little boy swollen from head to toe. I couldn’t believe my eyes,” said the child’s father. “I suspected that what might have happened was that the IV did not go into his vein but rather in his tissues,” he added.
He said he enquired from the nurses on duty what had gone wrong and was told that Meekaail was seen by a doctor during the night and he had ordered a transfer to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) for further care. The parents complied with the doctor’s order which resulted in Meekaail being admitted at the GPH where he spent two nights before being discharged.
“Before he was disharged I put him down to walk and it was then that I observed that he was walking with a defect to the right foot. The surgical team told me that the injection he had received had damaged a nerve and that it would take some time to heal,” said the father.
From that day walking and running became a major challenge for Meekaail. He is unable to wear shoes and as such has to wear sandals to school.
After a few days had elapsed and no improvement was noticed, Joseph said, he returned to the LHC where he spoke with the hospital’s matron.
She advised that the child be taken to the Upper Demerara hospital’s rehabilitation unit where he was placed on a schedule for rehabilitative session. This started on July 30, 2009.
On the day he was scheduled to commence therapy, the child was examined by visiting Orthopaedic Surgeon Dr Joseph who informed his mother that full recovery was 50-50.
“I am very displeased over the entire situation and very concerned for my son who is suffering great lot,” Joseph said. “I am worried since I do not know whether he would recover and be able to walk properly again. I must be compensated in some real way for this and I feel the authorities are not taking me very seriously.”
Joseph said that he had written to the LHC’s management on the issue and had copied letters to Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy, Minister within the Ministry of Health Dr Bheri Ramsarran and matron of the LHC. Stabroek News was unable to contact either Ramsammy or Ramsarran for a comment.
Joseph said while his son had attended rehabilitative sessions he has been seeking an audience with several medical authorities to no avail. He said when he made contact with the MoH, he was advised to speak with Nurse Bibi Hafrose and given the telephone number 225-2402 to speak with her. He never got through, nor did this newspaper
“I took a copy of the letter to the Regional Health Officer [RHO] and asked her to launch an investigation into the matter and she told me that she could only do so at the request of the minister,” he said. Stabroek News was able to speak with Regional Health Officer Pansy Armstrong who acknowledged receiving a call from the child’s father requesting an investigation.
She said she advised that he make contact with Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the LHC Gordon Gumbs and Chief Medical Officer Dr Riysat who would facilitate an internal investigation. She explained that for her to conduct an investigation into any medical matter at the hospital, a directive must first come from a minister.
Contacted, Gumbs said he was quite familiar with the case and has been in constant contact with the child’s father. He said that an investigation was conducted and had revealed that the child had sustained the injury due to him fighting while the injection was being administered. “This we understand, while it is regrettable, it’s common that children especially at his age would usually fight a lot when they have to take an injection,” Gumbs said. “And because of this we could not have been too harsh on the nurse in question.”
He also said that he had made it a personal interest of his to ensure that the child receives full access to physiotherapy. “When I spoke to the physiotherapist she told me that the child’s condition had improved significantly to the point that he can now run on the foot. And because it is a nerve that was damaged it would take some time for full recovery to take place.”
During the latter part of last year, physiotherapy ceased when the lone officer proceeded on leave. “I decided to take him to another doctor in the mean time,” Joseph said, “and I told Mr. Gumbs about this and ask that they refund me my bills, but nothing.”
Gumbs said the hospital is willing to support the child’s parents if they do not have confidence in the hospital service. He claimed that he was approached for refund of medical expenses incurred after the child was taken to another doctor. “We cannot support him to see that doctor [name given] because he is not an orthopaedic nor a neurosurgeon, but we are satisfied that with the care he is getting here he has made significant improvement,” Gumbs said.
Gumbs said that he is willing to work with the parents of Meekaail until he recovers fully. In the mean time running around the yard and school continues to be a restraining factor for Meekaail and when it’s time for his father to give him his morning and evening baths. “He still up to this day cries for pain and I can’t wash the area from just above his knee downwards properly,” said his father. “It worries me a lot every time I look at him walk. It’s as if I made a handicapped child because when he walks that’s how he looks, and it brings tears to my eyes to think that his foot may never again return to normal,” said the man with water-filled eyes.