Elton Todd’s death, days after undergoing surgery at a city hospital for acute appendicitis, stunned his family but they were even more surprised when they found out that the medical team that operated on him failed to remove his appendix.
Todd, of Rosignol, Berbice was rushed to Woodlands Hospital on December 20 complaining of severe abdominal pain and he subsequently underwent surgery there to have his appendix removed. He died two days later but according to his family the report of the autopsy revealed that his appendix was still there. “I’m not sure what they took out when they operated on him, but it was not his appendix,” a relative told Stabroek News on Wednesday.
The man’s family is now contemplating legal action against the hospital.
Dr. Neville Gobin, Managing Director of Woodlands Hospital, when contacted yesterday told Stabroek News that he had been out of the country and had only resumed his duties on Monday. Gobin said he was unaware of the case and therefore had no comment “at this time.”
Eldon Todd recalled that his brother left home crying out in pain on December 20, and after doctors at the hospital saw him they concluded that his appendix had to be removed.
At the time, Elton was accompanied by his father and a decision was taken for doctors to go ahead with the operation.
Eldon said that he visited his brother in hospital later that same day and “he was still crying out for pain.” He next visited on December 21 and he recounted that his brother was still in pain while the hospital staff appeared to have been paying very little attention to him.
He said the family watched as Elton complained bitterly; eventually they questioned whether anyone was paying attention to him.
According to Eldon, his brother was not in a position to pass urine and no tubes were hooked up for him to do this. Eldon said that the hospital staff only decided to give Elton the catheters later in the day after the family questioned what was happening. Minutes after the tubes were put in place, Elton started to pass urine. The angry family later left the hospital.
The next day, Eldon said that his father was the first person to get to the hospital and he found Elton still crying out in pain. Eldon said his father started asking questions again and the hospital staff decided to give Elton an injection.
Minutes after he received the injection, Elton died. “My father said that he didn’t live a good few minutes after he got this injection…what was worse, a patient close by told us that he was crying out all night for pain and no one tried to help him,” Eldon related.
Eldon Todd said that the hospital made arrangements with the Georgetown Public Hospital for the post-mortem examination to be done, but the family objected and asked for the body to go to Berbice for the examination to be conducted there. While family members were getting the documents together for the transfer, they became aware of a letter a doctor from the hospital had sent off to the public hospital. Eldon showed a copy of the letter to this newspaper and it stated, among other things, that his brother had a cardiac arrest on the day he died and resuscitation was not successful.
The family ignored the letter until the autopsy was done and the cause of death was given as a gangrenous appendix and acute peritonitis. “Is only after the post-mortem we realise that they never removed his appendix even though they operated on him for that purpose,” Eldon said.
He said that the family is not happy with the treatment his brother received at the hospital, while noting that his death has been a severe blow to his wife, young children and other surviving family members.
