Wife of kidney recipient Seolall Budhram has refuted statements made by the sister of his donor, who was also his aunt, about the circumstances surrounding her death after the surgery in India earlier this year.
Speaking with Stabroek News last week from her home, Bibi Shameer contended that Roseline Boodram died of a heart attack which she suffered four days subsequent to the surgery on April 18 and not a few hours later as previously reported by Roseline’s sister, Christine.
Shameer explained that the only illness her aunt-in-law suffered was an “in and out” low blood pressure and occasional flu.
“Long before she go, she was using her pills and so because she knew she had wanted to donate a kidney to my husband so she was trying her best to keep the pressure normal and long before she go, the pressure was ok,” the woman stated.
Shameer said Roseline, with whom she and her family were very close, had planned to donate her kidney without being asked. “That was something she wanted to do by herself, nobody asked her, nobody forced her to do it, she do it all by herself. God made her do it. He was in her heart, dwelling in her heart, making her make that decision to do it,” Shameer said.
The woman said that Christine had “given a totally different story” and suggested that if she was as curious as she stated, she could have had a post-mortem examination performed on the body after it would have been brought to Guyana.
Christine had told Stabroek News that her major concern was the whereabouts of her sister’s other organs since the body had been returned embalmed.
However, Shameer said that in India, embalming does not require the body parts to be removed. Instead, she said, the legs are cut and the chemicals are placed, and as such, no organs were taken from the corpse.
“Do what you have to do to know what you have to know,” she said.
“She can go to India and find out all about her sister’s body parts and she can also go there and find out the exact price that we paid for the surgery. I would not state how much for the surgery but it was more than the figure she said.”
Christine had told this newspaper that the surgery cost US$12,000.
With regard to her husband’s health, Shameer again contradicted Christine’s statements. “My husband wasn’t doing well in India but by the grace of God he is doing perfectly good now. The kidney is functioning at 100% and he is doing very well. He don’t be good today and sick tomorrow as she says. The recovery is very long and the aftercare is very important and my husband is doing very, very well.”
She further stated that her husband was unaware of his aunt’s death until he had returned Guyana since his doctors had advised her not to share this information with him. “That was so bad… knowing that there is a part of his aunt living in him and this happened to her,” she said.
The woman stated that she was very scared at the time and took very good care of her husband to help him through that phase of his life. Today, she said, six months after the kidney transplant, he is taking his medication, using his special diet and exercising and has recovered well.
She also stated that his improved health is owed to the many persons who helped and supported them. “I just want to thank everybody who helped to make his surgery possible and I am very, very grateful, my husband also, to the public, everybody who helped in making his surgery possible,” Shameer said.
“Roseline’s passing is not our work. That’s the work of God. He has life in His hand and He gives it and takes it when He wants. I would not harm Roseline for any reason because we were so close. I had great love for her. I have five kids and I would not hurt anybody… but I know for sure that Roseline is in heaven for the good that she has done,” Shameer said.
