(Jamaica Gleaner) A custody battle for Jodian Fearon’s six-month-old daughter Peyton-Grace is threatening to inflict fresh wounds in the relationship between the deceased first-time mom’s loved ones even as they try to come to terms with her tragic passing under controversial circumstances in April.
Fearon’s death sparked national outrage after she was reportedly denied timely care and supervision, dying after being transferred among three hospitals while in labour and reportedly showing symptoms of COVID-19. At the end of the two-day ordeal, she passed away at the University Hospital of the West Indies, reportedly from heart failure.
Test results later showed that she did not have the coronavirus.
Kenton Senior, the father of Peyton-Grace, is now wrestling with Fearon’s family for custody of the infant, with the matter to be settled in court.
Attorney-at-law Chad Lawrence of the law firm Samuda & Johnson, which is representing Senior, confirmed to The Sunday Gleaner that an application was filed in the Supreme Court.
The first hearing of the matter is set to for November 30.
“We feel confident in it and we are going to do what we have to do,” Lawrence told The Sunday Gleaner, while being cautious about disclosures surrounding the case.
The Sunday Gleaner understands that the six-month-old girl has been living with Fearon’s family.
Senior, a 41-year-old immigration officer who has two other children, had been critical of the hospitals in the aftermath of the tragedy, saying they had failed her.
“I grew up watching my grandmother saving people’s life in the country area, delivering children out of their mothers, and now to see something like this happening to my own, … this is just sad,” he said, insisting that he would not accept any excuses.
“I was trying to man up and play the tough guy, the macho man, but mi nah tell no lie, every time I look at the baby and then look at Jodi’s picture, sometimes mi just break down. It’s very hard,” he said.
When contacted, the family’s attorney, Isat Buchanan, said he preferred to comment on the matter at a later date.
Last month, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn ruled that “there was no material to establish the negligence or incompetence of any doctor or any other person”.
DPP’S RULING
The DPP said that the threshold to prove criminal negligence was very high and that the material reviewed would not able to establish the charge.
Llewellyn further said that a coroner’s jury would inevitably reach the same conclusion as outlined in her ruling.
“It is clear from the material on file that the unease occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertainty surrounding Ms Fearon’s status may have contributed to what appears to be the uncoordinated, indecisive efforts, and tardy response by the health institutions/medical personnel in Jamaica’s public-health sector or from her personal physician,” she stated in a report.
Buchanan strongly disagreed with the DPP’s decision and is seeking to get hold of video footage the DPP reviewed in making her ruling.
A civil suit could be on the cards, he indicated.
