The relatives of a Number 19 Village, Corentyne, Berbice woman are claiming that negligence at a state health centre resulted in the death of their loved one, hours after she visited the facility on February 01.
Ritrani Devi Shiwprasad Totaram also known as ‘Rita’, 57, of Lot 19 Number 19 Village, visited the health centre located a short distance from her home on the morning of February 1 after experiencing some issues with her chest.
Her daughter, Preya Totaram, 22, yesterday told Stabroek News, that the woman’s daughter-in-law accompanied her after “she said she chest burning.” However, it was discovered at the health centre that the woman’s blood pressure was high. “They give her a tablet and tell her to sit down,” the daughter said.
According to the daughter, around 11.30 persons at the health centre informed the woman that they were going off on a lunch break and upon their return to work, were going to test her blood pressure a second time. This was done at around 2 pm. “Them test back she pressure it was still high and them test her sugar and it high too and them tell she go home and them give she a paper to go next day at New Amsterdam Hospital and do a heart test,” the daughter recalled.
Totaram then walked home where she sat for a few minutes and talked with her daughter after which she went to the washroom and upon returning she told her daughter that “she head a swing and she just fall and knock she head.”
The family then rushed the woman to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital where she died a few minutes after arriving. “When she fall she start get short a breath and we rush with her but she took her last breath at the hospital when we got there,” the daughter noted yesterday.
According to the young woman, her mother in the past had suffered a “slight stroke.”
“We spent most of our time together. She don’t ever go out anywhere without me. She was a great soul,” she noted.
She described her mother to be an extremely “kind, loving and caring person.”
The woman’s brother, Gurudat Shiwprasad, 56, also known ‘Bud’, yesterday said that a post mortem examination which was done on February 02, established the cause of death as a result of heart failure and high blood pressure.
The family is contending that had she received better care at the health centre and if a decision was made to immediately transfer her to a hospital then maybe she could have survived.
The family wants an investigation to be launched and if persons are found to have been negligent, that they be held accountable for their actions.
