One year after a gallstone surgery left her in a vegetative state at the Lethem Regional Hospital, Shulinab resident Thelma Ribeiro has died.
According to woman’s husband, Rodrick Ribeiro, who spoke to Stabroek News via telephone yesterday, his wife passed at approximately 6.18 pm on Thursday.
He also took the opportunity to register his dissatisfaction at the manner in which his wife’s case was handled.
“We wrote letters to the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs and the Ministry of Public Health seeking assistance and some form of investigation into what happened but nothing was really ever done,” the widower lamented.
“She went down from here healthy and was advised to do surgery for the gallstone.
As much as she cried when she heard she had to get surgery, she went ahead, took the risk based on the doctor’s advice and look what ended up happening to her,” he added.
Just last year former Public Health Minister Dr George Norton, when asked to comment on the woman’s situation, said the ministry was monitoring Ribeiro’s condition, but there was not much else that could be done since she was brain dead.
At the same time, a relative of the woman had told Stabroek News that there had been no sign of improvement, but that Ribeiro’s body continued to shrink, as she lay brain dead at the Lethem Regional Hospital.
A resident of Shulinab, in South Central Rupununi, 48-year-old Ribeiro had been diagnosed with gallstones during a medical outreach in Region Nine. The diagnosis prompted the woman to undergo a surgery at the Lethem Regional Hospital on March 10th, 2016.
The next day, the woman’s husband was informed that the procedure was unsuccessful and that she would have to travel to Georgetown where she would undergo another surgery at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH).
Ribeiro arrived at the hospital and had the surgery on March 14th, 2016; several hours later, Stabroek News understands, the woman’s daughter, who is a non-medical staff at the hospital was told by a doctor on the surgery team that the surgery went well and her mother was recovering well in the recovery room.
The daughter remained at the hospital until about 8.30 pm when she met with a Dr Tiwari who told her that her mother had lost a lot of blood and had suffered a cardiac arrest in the recovery room.
As a result, Ribeiro was transferred to the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) while her daughter was presented with 26 gall stones which the doctor said were removed from the woman during surgery.
The very next day, Ribeiro’s daughter and other relatives returned to the hospital to visit the woman, who was attached to a life support machine in the ICU. She remained on life support until March 18th, 2016.
The daughter, accompanied by her supervisor met with a Dr Biplab Singh, who explained that her mother suffered cardiac arrest that lasted for about 5 minutes. He said Ribeiro suffered minor brain damage which caused her to slip into a coma.
Additionally, she was told by a Dr Amir that the surgery should not have been done in Lethem as they did not have the necessary equipment.
In the series of events that followed, Ribeiro underwent a CT scan, which revealed she had swelling in the brain, and treatment was recommended.
It was also advised that she undergo a tracheotomy to remove the tubes which were in her mouth for a period in excess of 7 days; this surgery was done on March 21st, 2016 at the GPH.
Ribeiro remained a patient at the hospital until she was subsequently transferred to the Lethem Regional Hospital, where she had been for the past several months.
Stabroek News understands that funeral preparations are currently underway as Ribeiro is expected to be laid to rest on Monday in Shulinab Village.
