Family members of Krishna Maniram, the 21-year-old who succumbed on Monday last, days after he was stabbed at a bar at Mon Repos are calling on the health authorities to explain why he was transported to the COVID-19 Hospital from the GPHC given his critical state.
“I don’t know how they can do something like that and they see how he was bleeding when he went to the hospital (Georgetown Public Hospital),” the distraught father, Brama Maniram yesterday said.
According to the father, none of the medical officials have provided clear reasoning as to why his son could not have been treated at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
The registration of death form, the father said, stated his son’s cause of death as multi-organ dysfunction, septic shock, left tension pneumothorax, traumatic small bowel laceration and a stab wound to the abdomen. The form was shared with this newspaper.
“I don’t understand how they are saying he had COVID and he was well and going to work. It was only when he got to the hospital they said he got COVID and they send him away to Liliendaal,” the father lamented.
The father yesterday said that they will be visiting the hospital today to seek answers from those in authority.
Even if Maniram tested positive for COVID, it has been contended in the past that the hospital should treat first with what it is the immediate life-threatening condition and in this case it appeared to be the stabbing. The GPHC has been criticised over several other cases where persons with serious conditions died after being transported to the Infectious Diseases Hospital at Liliendaal for treatment of COVID.
The now deceased youth sustained the stab wounds on Friday July 8, 2022 and was transported to the COVID-19 health institution during the wee hours of Saturday. He remained a patient there up to the time of his death on Monday morning at around 6.30.
“If they had keep him at the Georgetown hospital he could have still been alive but he went there and all I know they give he is oxygen. He didn’t get the care he needed. He could have lived if they had only kept him at Georgetown,” the grieving father opined.
Efforts yesterday to solicit a comment from Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony provide futile.
GPHC’s Public Relation Officer Jai Lall when contacted yesterday said he would have to review the information before providing a comment.
The Sunday Stabroek yesterday reported that the police will not opt for an autopsy due to the deceased being declared a COVID-19 positive patient.
Acting East Coast of Demerara Commander, Keithon King on Saturday said “No PM was done because you know they don’t do PM for COVID.”
He said ranks are currently waiting on documentation from pathologist, Dr Nehaul Singh to determine the way forward in the matter.
Asked whether the suspect in the stabbing has been arrested, King said efforts are still being made to locate him.
Brama told Stabroek News that although Krishna was bleeding profusely, he was put on a wheelchair for some time on Friday before he received medical attention. According to Brama, while at the GPH, Krishna was given a COVID test and the result was positive.
Unbeknownst to the family, Brama said, his son was transferred to the Infectious Diseases Hospital at Liliendaal. “I don’t know wah going on with these people them……When I went at the COVID centre Monday afternoon, I talk to the security them and them go up and come down and seh that how nobody nah know what time he passed away. He already deh at the mortuary,” he related.
“Them nah inform nobody. Me daughter went deh [GPH], so by time they left and go back, they already got he in the ambulance carrying he to the COVID centre,” Brama added.
