(Trinidad Express) Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan promised “harsh decisions” after an ambulance service ignored the cry for help from a young mother and her ailing baby.
Khan, in a media release, said he was “disgusted” to learn of the “inhumane behaviour” of the emergency medical technicians (EMT’s) who, on Friday, told mother Stacy Simon that a corporate policy prevented them from helping her 21-month-old baby.
Baby Akeel Simon was later pronounced dead on arrival at the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH).
The child, who had Down’s Syndrome, had three holes in his heart and an enlarged liver. He began to run a high fever on Friday which was his clinic day at SFGH. While on the way to hospital with his mother Stacy Simon of Happy Valley, Erin, the car they were in encountered mechanical problems.
The mother flagged down another car which fought its way through heavy traffic to get to the hospital. It was on the way there, she saw an ambulance with a blue stripe coming and tried to get help. She said two persons in the ambulance told her it was against policy to help persons like her on the road.
“What foolish policy are they talking about?” Khan asked in a telephone interview yesterday.
“It is obvious that no human feelings existed in these EMT’s. An ambulance is an ambulance, they are supposed to help,” he said.
Khan said the actions of EMT’s in recent time may hint at a deeper issue with the ambulance management company.
“It’s almost as if they are on a work-to-rule,” he said.
Khan recalled a similar incident when music icon Pat Bishop collapsed in August last year.
“There was another issue with the ambulance then too,” he said.
Bishop collapsed during a high-profile meeting at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA), a short distance from the Port of Spain General Hospital. Minister of Planning Dr Bhoe Tewarie had then said it took more than 20 minutes for an ambulance to arrive and another 20 minutes before Bishop arrived at the hospital’s emergency department.
Last Monday, former prime minister Patrick Manning suffered a stroke and had to be rushed to the SFGH in a Fire Service ambulance, this after the driver of the Emergency Health Service (EHS) ambulance belonging to the Global Medical Response of Trinidad and Tobago (GMRTT) could not find Manning’s residence at Sumadh Gardens, Vistabella.
On Tuesday, several people at the hospital confirmed that the EHS could not find the residence.
Officers from the Mon Repos Fire Station later confirmed that an ambulance arrived at Manning’s residence at approximately 9.10 p.m. on Monday, and transported him to hospital.
Dr Anil Gosine, chief executive officer of the South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA), yesterday said he could not disagree with the Health Minister for condemning the actions of the EMT’s.
Gosine said there was an unwritten policy that stipulated that the RHA’s could only transport patients from one medical facility to another and were not readily equipped to treat emergency cases or provide medical treatment on the side of the road.
“Whenever we have to transport someone, then we equip the ambulance. In this case with the mother and her child it could be that the ambulance did not have a medical person on board and did not have the equipment to deal with the case,” he said. “And if something happens to someone during transport it opens us to litigation. But if we need to now handle those situations then there needs to be a policy change,” he said.
Gosine said he was aware of the media reports on the case and questioned why the baby’s doctor did not call the GMRTT ambulance.
“A lot of it does not add up,” he said.
Paul Anderson, general manager of GMRTT, said according to preliminary investigations, the ambulance in question did not belong to GMRTT. He said he was not aware of any corporate or medical policy that prevented an EMT from assisting people from the roadside.
“There is no GMRTT policy that would guide someone to not care for a sick person regardless of where they are,” he said.
Anderson said GMRTT assisted victims from the scene of an incident, from their homes and anywhere in between.
Khan said he was currently trying to reorganise the ambulance system and decentralise it.
“It is a horror story,” Khan said.
