Natalie Caseley, the mother of four-year-old Jaden Mars, yesterday received permission to file for a hearing date in her suit against the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), which she has accused of causing her son’s death.
This is the latest step in Caseley’s attempt to get justice since her son’s death in December, 2013.
Since then, Caseley has carried out a crusade to ensure that he is not forgotten and that those she believes responsible for his death are found culpable.
After numerous failed attempts to get justice for her son through the bureaucratic channels of the Ministry of Health, Caseley resorted to judicial action.
In July last year, when she began her action, Caseley had told Stabroek News, “I’ve given them a chance to do right by not only me but by Guyana at large but I’ve recognised that they are only engaging me a bit and after that I’m on my own.”
At that time, she had also received reports that disciplinary actions were to be taken against four health care workers who had been involved in handling her son prior to his death. According to the mother, she had received reports that the implicated nurse had been “sent off” for training. However, the three culpable doctors are still on the job, she said. No one from the nursing or medical councils, she emphasised, had made contact with her.
Yesterday, her representative Nigel Hughes told Stabroek News that he had written to both the Medical Council and the Nurses Council asking for copies of the reports filed after the investigation into Jaden’s death.
Though the Medical Council acknowledged receipt of his request, to date, six months after the request, he has not received the requested information.
According to Caseley, GPHC, in its statement of defence in response to the suit, claim that the ketamine (anaesthetic) used on Jaden was legal and the doctors were not negligent therefore the hospital is not responsible for the child’s death.
Meanwhile, Minister of Health Dr Bheri Ramsaran has been reported as saying he has launched a new investigation into Jaden’s death. It was reported that Ramsaran would release the findings of this new investigation yesterday but Caseley and her representative had not been contacted by the minister. Stabroek News also made attempts to contact Ramsaran but was unable to reach him.
Caseley has noted that she does not have high hopes for this new investigation. “I have no confidence,” she said.
She is hoping that her actions leads to the persons who may be culpable for her son’s death no longer functioning in the health care system. “They need to be suspended or have their licence taken away,” she stressed.
Meanwhile, the judicial system is unlikely to provide Caseley a speedy resolution. Hughes told Stabroek News that on average it takes three years from the filing for a request for a hearing to the fixture of a date for hearing.
He noted that he intends to write to the Chief Justice asking for the registrar to set an early date for the hearing.
Jaden Mars had been admitted to the Georgetown Public Hospital on December 4, 2013, after he had fallen while playing at his West Ruimveldt home and bitten his tongue. On December 11, he died in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital after suffering multiple heart crashes. A subsequent post-mortem examination showed that the young boy had died as a result of a pulmonary embolism.
