An investigation has been launched into the death of the baby boy who died one day after being vaccinated at the Plaisance Health Centre and his mother Suemede Eastman-Critchlow told Stabroek News yesterday that she wants justice for her son.
This justice, she said, will include the dismissal of the nurse who vaccinated her child. “I would like for her to no longer be issuing vaccine, she must be dismissed,” the mother said.
According to Eastman-Critchlow the doctor attached to the Health Centre has assured her that an investigation has been launched into the death of her son Kevon Rodwell Critchlow and that this investigation is being led by the doctor in charge of East Coast health centres.
On Wednesday March 18, Eastman-Critchlow, who lives in Goedver-wagting, took her five-month-old child to the health centre for his vaccines.
When he returned home Kevon slept for an unusually long time, developed a fever and then began bleeding from his nose and frothing at the mouth. When Eastman-Critchlow took Kevon to the hospital he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The next day the distraught mother retuned to the health centre and confronted the nurse. “I ask her, nurse is what vaccine you give my child?” According to Eastman-Critchlow at this point the medic took her son’s clinic card and gave it to the nurse who she believed attempted to alter the records.
A post-mortem examination conducted determined that Kevon Critchlow had sustained a brain haemorrhage. A conclusion as to cause of death could not however be reached so fluids from the infant’s body have been collected for further testing. The family of the dead infant believes that Kevon was mistakenly given the vaccines meant for his five-year-old cousin with the same name.
They have a lodged a complaint with the Sparendaam Police Station and intend to lodge a written complaint with the Guyana Nurses’ Association, the Medical Council of Guyana and the Chief Medical Office by the end of this week.
Eastman-Critchlow is certain that the nurse who administered vaccines to her son is responsible for his death repeatedly saying that her son was healthy. “We had no problem with him,” she stressed.
Medical professionals contacted by this paper were sceptical of the account provided by the mother. Each professional contacted said that though they have encountered lethargy and fever as side effects of vaccination they have never encountered bleeding. Sharing with available literature they opined that the child’s symptoms were more in line with a fall.
