More than two months after a 14-year-old girl died while being treated at the Skeldon Hospital, her father is still desperately trying to seek justice as he does not want her death to go in vain.
Edwin De Barros, 56, of No. 60 Village, Corentyne said that his daughter, Savitri Debarros was admitted to the institution on August 12 and claims that she died as a result of being given the wrong treatment. He wants the matter to be thoroughly investigated so as to prevent other patients from dying in similar manner.
Contacted, Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy told Stabroek News that he has instructed the Chief Medical Officer to investigate the girl’s death. He said that even if the father had not requested an inquiry the ministry was concerned that a young person had died and pointed out that that requires an automatic investigation. The minister said too that they are looking to make sure that the doctor did all he could in trying to save the girl’s life.
The man said that the girl developed a wheezing on August 11 shortly after eating food from a Chinese restaurant and he took her to the hospital around 7:15 pm.
He pointed out that she was strong enough to walk into the hospital on her own but said that shortly after she got an injection her condition deteriorated. He said no doctor was present at the hospital at the time but the nurses on duty contacted the doctor by telephone and he instructed them to administer medication through an intravenous drip.
Immediately after she got the medication, he recalled, the girl started to cry “daddy it burning.” She was also unable to move.
De Barros said that no one visited him to investigate the matter although he went to several places trying to get satisfaction. He said too that he does not know if anyone in authority is trying to find out what injection was given to the girl.
Meanwhile, De Barros said no post-mortem (PM) was performed on his daughter’s remains but he had observed that her fingers and toes had gotten blue. He is still to receive the girl’s death certificate.
He said after waiting for 10 days he received a call that the PM would be performed at the New Amsterdam Hospital and that he would have to pay a hearse $75,000 to transport the body.
He said he was not prepared to do that and questioned “why the dead must move to meet the doctor when the doctor could move to meet to the dead.”
Dr. Ramsammy said that although it was not necessary, the PM would have been performed but De Barros indicated that he did not want it to be done by Dr. Brijmohan.
He said too that in that case they were willing to send Dr. Nehaul Singh to Skeldon to do it but De Barros did not seem interested.
The minister pointed out that because of the child’s condition she should have been in the hospital sooner since she was diabetic.
However, De Barros, who said he is an herbal specialist, pointed out that although his daughter was diagnosed with diabetes he treated her for that and it had not showed up back in her system. As such, he said the hospital would not have even known his daughter was diabetic if he had not told them.
‘Donkey City’
As the child’s condition worsened, De Barros said he became worried and frustrated and enquired from the nurses where the doctor was and they responded that he was at his home at “Donkey City [at Line Path, Corentyne].”
He said that by then he lost his patience and blurted out something about the doctor.
The man said the nurses never mentioned to him that the doctor was on his way even though he continued to vent his frustration. During that time a young doctor walked in but Debarros did not know who he was.
The doctor said nothing to him and “sat on a chair” and made a phone call. Shortly after three police officers showed up with a “machine gun and baton” and ordered him out of the hospital. He said he waited until they left and went back into the ward and apologized to the doctor “so I could get close to my daughter and start to pray for her.”
He later went home and his son remained with his sister. During that time the nurses kept giving her saline. The hospital promised to get an ambulance that night to transfer his daughter to the New Amsterdam Hospital but it never showed up until 8:30 the following morning.
He was driving ahead of the ambulance but while he was at No. 36 Village he realized that no ambulance was in sight. He decided to call home to enquire if the vehicle had passed there and learnt that it had turned back.
His family contacted the hospital and learnt that the girl had died and that her body was placed in the mortuary. He is still taking her death very hard and was shocked to read a letter in last weekend’s edition of the Mirror newspaper by the district organizer of the People’s Progressive Party, Douglas that his daughter died as he was taking her to the hospital.
Douglas wrote in the letter that “due to her condition he [De Barros] attempted to take her to hospital at Skeldon instead of calling for an ambulance.”
He noted that Douglas must be aware that no ambulance has been available at the Skeldon Hospital for the longest while. The letter further said that the man “probably did not realize this, or decided to take her to the doctors in any case. When she was examined it was discovered that she had expired…”
De Barros stated that Douglas should have been more responsible and checked his facts before writing untruths.
He recalled that his daughter had another attack of wheezing in April last and was taken right to the Skeldon Hospital where she was treated by a Cuban doctor.
At that time she was given oxygen and an injection and within 20 minutes she left the hospital feeling better.
Shoulder
Meanwhile, a woman from the same village, Sandra Roopnarine told this newspaper that her husband, Kawal Roopnarine, 52, died shortly after receiving two injections at the Skeldon Hospital over one month ago for a shoulder pain.
The man, a labourer, fell and injured his shoulder which was placed in a cast. A few days later he experienced severe pain and returned to the hospital and got the injections.
She felt the shots were either “wrong or dem too strong for he because when he reach home he heart start to flutter and he hands turn blue.” He was also “calling for water all the time.”
According to the woman, her husband died within two hours after returning from the hospital. She said the results of a PM that was performed six days later proved that his lungs had a serious problem. Sandra, who said she has not received a death certificate for her husband told this newspaper that he was “a strong working man… he never had a problem with his lungs.”
Asked if she reported the matter to the authorities, she responded, “Me poor and me don’t know where to go and who to go to.”
