The report on the circumstances surrounding the death of Farida De Souza who suffered three heart attacks during a 12-hour wait at the Georgetown Hospital will be available today and the findings revealed to the media, according to the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer, Michael Khan.
Khan made this disclosure when this newspaper visited his office for an update on the investigations. “We will be getting the report tomorrow (today)”, he said.
When asked if the contents will be released to the media, Khan responded in the affirmative while expressing hope that it will be given the same prominence as the report on her death.
Even as Khan revealed that the report is almost ready, the hospital is still to make arrangements for the woman’s son, Raul to identify the nurses who were on duty in the emergency room while his mother was there.
When contacted last evening, the young man said that he is frustrated and was going to give the hospital another week before he takes action. Over the weekend the man had complained that he was fed up with the foot- dragging. Since the incident, arrangements were to be put in place for him to visit and identify the nurses. He had been told that the nurses were on night duty for one month so he would have to go there during the night to identify them.
He was told that he would be contacted on a particular night but this never happened. He visited the hospital twice in relation to this matter but has so far gotten no satisfaction.
De Souza has accused the staff of negligence contending that had they acted on his mother’s complaints and had they moved with some speed in the treatment given to her, she may have been alive today.
De Souza a 56-year-old mother of four was rushed to the Georgetown Hospital after she collapsed at her Albouystown home on May 13 around 11.30 am. The woman was never really attended to until around 2.30 pm when she was given saline and some blood taken for tests to be conducted.
After all of the saline was administered—this would have been sometime after 5 pm that day—she was told to go into the waiting area of the emergency room and wait for her test results. Though staff was told that the woman was uncomfortable sitting on the bench, they indicated that no beds were available.
Around 10.30 pm she started complaining about chest pains and he alerted the nurses on duty but was told that they had to wait on the results after which the doctor would assess the situation.
Her test results were finally ready at 2.30 am on May 14 and after reviewing them the doctor indicated that she should do a chest x-ray since he did not like what he saw.
The woman was made to walk to the x-ray department without a nurse or a wheelchair.
She collapsed just outside the department and had to be rushed into the emergency room on a stretcher. At that point she was in a semi-conscious state. It was while in the emergency room that the woman suffered three heart attacks. Two minor ones followed by a massive one.
She was later admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and placed on life support. She died the following morning.
