The police on the Esse-quibo Coast are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a man, who was found dead in a trench at Onderneem-ing, Essequibo Coast, on Friday morning, just over a day after he discharged himself from the Suddie Public Hospital, where he had been admitted.
The dead man has been identified as Mahesh Chandarpaul, 51, called ‘Kishore’ and ‘Tall Boy,’ who was a labourer attach-ed to the Regional Demo-cratic Council (RDC) of Region Two.
On the day before his body was found, Chandarpaul was reported missing by his family and a search party was formed. His body was found floating in a trench.
Speaking with this publication, Nirvana Chandarpaul said her father had fallen ill at home on Tuesday and was taken to the Suddie Public Hospital, where he was admitted.
“My father was complaining that he had… stomach pain and he was vomiting and getting blackout. When we took him to the hospital, they give him saline and put him to rest and later in the day they admitted him to the ward. When we went back later that afternoon, he was still not feeling well,” she explained.
Nirvana said that on Wednesday, when her family visited her father, he was doing better and was even walking around and talking with persons he knew in the ward.
“On Wednesday, he made great improvement and he was eating and talking as normal. I don’t know what happen Wed-nesday night but when we went for the early morning visit on Thursday morning, he was not on the bed. When we asked the nurse where he was, she asked us if he did not reach home. That’s when she told us that 10pm on Wednesday night, he left the hospital saying he was going home. We were surprised. So I asked her why they did not stop him and she said that she was afraid that he would hit her,” the woman related.
“I asked her if he was in his senses and she said yes. So I asked her if she was afraid that he would hit her why, she didn’t call the porters to assist her in getting him back into bed. They just allowed my father to walk out of a hospital without stopping him. Look at the time of the night that he walked out from there. If these nurses had at least called us when all this happened, my father may would have still been alive. Both my phone number and my mother phone number was on the chart. All they had to do was call us. We would have been able to come right away and collect him,” she added.
Although the man was being administered saline, the nurses said he pulled the needle out and wandered off.
Search parties were formed and relatives combed the surrounding areas and villages for the man.
His body was found floating in the trench at around 9am on Friday.
A post-mortem examination performed on the body revealed that he died as a result of drowning.
“I blame the hospital for the death of my father. Who is going to give me him back now? The nurses know that he left. All they had to do was call us and we would have gone to collect him. I believe that they were not diligent in dealing with the patient in their care. My father was not violent so the explanation that the nurse give about her being afraid of him hitting her does not make sense. She herself said that he was in his senses when he left the hospital. They just allowed a sick man who was taking saline at the time to just walk out of the ward at 10pm in the night,” Nirvana said.
This publication was told that investigators believe that the man may have fallen into a trench and drowned after wandering off.
An autopsy, which is scheduled, is expected to shed light on how he met his demise.
