Health Minister Dr Bheri Ramsaran on Thursday told the National Assembly that a blackout at the New Amsterdam Hospital was not responsible for the death of a post-operative patient last month.
Tirtawattie Shoandeo, 47, of Lot 129 Whim Village, Corentyne, Berbice died at 2am on January 20th, seven hours after the completion of a surgical procedure at the hospital that had been interrupted by a blackout and the failure to get a back-p generator running.
Shoandeo’s family has said that as she was undergoing surgery on January 19th there was a power outage, leading to a frantic search for someone to turn on the standby generator. The generator operator was never found and surgeons and the woman had to wait until the power was restored an hour later. During the outage, the woman’s surgeon left the operating theatre twice, to go to his car for a mini-light and then shortly after in search of a flashlight. It is unclear if he found one.
Her family believes that the power outage in some way contributed to her death as lighting was not sufficient nor were needed medical devices operational.
Ramsaran was questioned about the circumstances surrounding the woman’s death and the lack of a generator operator at the hospital.
“The death of the patient was not because of the blackout… A patient did die but a patient died some seven hours after surgery,” Ramsaran said.
Main opposition APNU MP Annette Ferguson asked him to explain what were the reasons for the malfunction of the generator, and if there were alternative systems in place in the event the generator fails. Ferguson also questioned if there would be any disciplinary action against the porters, who “reportedly neglected their duty and if there are now systems in place to avoid such reoccurrences.”
Ramsaran stressed that the woman did not die while undergoing surgery. He pointed out that immediately after her death, an investigation was launched but some of the reports are still outstanding and as a result he could not speculate.
He said that the relevant officers have assured that while the matter of having the generator’s automatic turnover switch is dealt with, there will be an attendant in case the need arises to throw the switch on manually. Further, he said that other personnel who are not part of the hospital’s maintenance crew were also being trained to deal with turning on the switch should there ever be that need.
As it related to the question of disciplinary action against the porters responsible for turning on the generator, he said that since there is an ongoing investigation it would be wrong to preemptively conclude that it was the porters who were responsible and therefore lay the blame at their feet. “This would be preemptive. The porter will be the lowest level in the line of command and [it] might be very well unfair, we, naming the porter as the culprit,” he said.
On Wednesday, the Central Corentyne Chamber of Commerce (CCCC) called for a thorough investigation of the case, while urging Presi-dent Donald Ramotar to address the power situation in Berbice.
