Relatives of Shemar Miggins yesterday told Stabroek News that they were baffled when the West Demerara Regional Hospital refused to release the boy’s organs for a second autopsy procedure.
Miggins’ uncle, Clyde Anderson said he had become concerned and suspicious when the family asked for Shemar’s organs to be removed so they could have a second post-mortem examination done, but was told by the hospital that the police had to grant permission. He said when they approached the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station they were told by an officer that it was the duty of the hospital to discharge the order for removal of body organs. Subsequently, Miggins was buried on January 19 without the second autopsy being performed.
Anderson said the family was still waiting on the results of an investigation launched by the Ministry of Health following the boy’s unexpected collapse and death at the hospital on January 12. Stabroek News tried to contact Chief Medical Officer Shamdeo Persaud but was told that he was tied up in a meeting and unable to take a call.
Anderson said the family was still shaken by the sudden death of Miggins and still believed that something happened at the hospital that Saturday afternoon which resulted in the death of the boy. “I feel really messed up about this. They know they did something wrong, that’s the only reason why they trying to cover up,” he said.
Miggins died at the hospital around 14:00 hrs on January 12 after failed attempts by doctors to revive him. The post-mortem examination performed at Ezekiel’s Funeral home by a government pathologist indicated that Miggins died as a result of suffocation owing to food in the lungs.
