Hurt, angry and disappointed, Nelroy McRae is appealing to President Irfaan Ali to look into what happened to his wife, Padminie McRae, who had one of her legs amputated following an accident during her hospitalisation at the Infectious Disease Hospital and to ensure that she gets help.
“I would like to ask the President for a help to assist my wife and ask them not to let this happen to anyone else,” Nelroy told Stabroek News on Friday.
The man said that up to then neither the Ministry of Health nor the government had yet to reach out to his family, which had hoped to get help for Padminie by making her accident known to the public. He said they were forced to speak to the media because even though his wife was discharged from the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) since March 29th, they have had little or no help from the hospital or the ministry.
“I thought when we go through the media that they might have called we in and at least compromise or something but no one called, that is to show the cruelty of these people,” the man said.
Contacted on Tuesday, one day after the woman’s story was published in this newspaper, Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony said that the Infectious Diseases Hospital falls under the GPH and that there is an office set up at that hospital to deal with such cases. A source had told Stabroek News that while the Liliendaal hospital is staffed by personnel from GPH it comes under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Health.
At the time the minister stated that if the family wanted the matter to be dealt with properly, then it should engage the office at GPH.
And while he said that it is the right of the family to make the matter public, he said he did not understand why it went the route of making public statements in the media when there is an office for them to go to deal with the issue.
“I am not sure why they are making this into a public statement — and that is their right — but I am sure if they go to the hospital where there is an office it would be dealt with,” he had said at the time.
The minister became irked when he was asked if was not concerned about the case and whether he wanted to publicly say something to the family, as he accused the Stabroek News reporter of attempting to put words in his mouth and once again repeated that there is a procedure for the matter to be dealt with.
“You are calling me about a story about a woman, which I think you have written about, and I am saying to you that this matter falls under the Georgetown Hospital and there is an office there that can deal with the matter…,” the minister maintained at the time.
Fifty-six-year-old Padminie Mc Rae’s left leg was amputated from above the knee last month following an accident in the Infectious Diseases Hospital’s transition ward at Liliendaal. An oxygen tank fell on her left foot after she grabbed on to it in an effort to break a fall that occurred when she attempted to retrieve some of her personal items from the floor.
On March 19, an antibody COVID-19 test had been administered to the woman at Woodlands Hospital, which showed she was positive and she was referred to the GPH, which later transferred her to the Liliendaal facility. Following her accident, her toes on the injured foot were amputated. Padminie is diabetic. A PCR test was done on Tuesday, March 23, and it revealed that she was COVID-19 negative. The same night her leg was amputated as it was feared that she could develop blood poisoning and die.
The woman and her husband, Nelroy Mc Rae, last Monday appealed for assistance from the Ministry of Health and ultimately the government as their lives have been drastically changed forever and they lamented that they have been treated shabbily in their quest for help.
Nelroy Mc Rae said that it is a “shame and disgrace” that the hospital, which is the main one treating COVID-19 patients, did not ensure that his wife was indeed positive instead of just “taking her and dumping her and she fall into a disaster”.
He said this Tuesday the woman is slated to return to GPH for treatment and she is afraid to go.
“She don’t want to go, she is afraid… I tell she I would be there with her,” the man said.
“I am very angry and disappointed, I don’t’ want to speak how much I am taking it on because it sends up my blood pressure,” he added.
“It is negligence! Gross negligence! As a Guyanese, they shouldn’t treat us like this. It is like these people are monsters or something,” he continued.
