What seemed like a routine cholecystectomy (gallstone removal surgery) at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) for a 45-year-old East Coast Demerara (ECD) teacher ended tragically and her family is calling for a comprehensive investigation into the post-operative care given to patients at the facility.
Saturday coming was planned as a day of celebration with her family for Shonnata Rowena Sawh who would have graduated with a degree in Education Studies from the University of Guyana on December 9. Instead, they are now planning her cremation and are still trying to come to grips with how a reportedly successful surgery could so suddenly end tragically for their loved one. Sawh is the niece of former President Donald Ramotar.
It was not possible to elicit a comment from the GPHC yesterday on Sawh’s death.
“The surgery was successful and everything went ok the Wednesday…however it is the aftercare that killed her. Her pressure plunged to 80/70, and no one did nothing. No doctor checked on her until Thursday when she was at her weakest and by the afternoon she was dead. Only then they realized also that she did not even pass urine,” her mother Annie Shaw told Stabroek News from their Mon Repos, ECD home.
“They did not give her the care she should have gotten. We know if we make a report or what’s not it can’t bring my daughter back. They would just blame some small body and that would be the end of it. So we will cremate her, but we hope the President could get them to investigate what really happens at GPHC because it is not the first, second, third…time. Only the other day is the girl with the twin baby, now is my daughter. Who is next? ” her father, Ganesh Sawh added.
The parents of the nursery school teacher recounted the events leading up to the surgery and her death and expressed disappointment in the health care system at the city’s main public hospital.
The now deceased Sawh was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday morning (November 15), however she faced difficulty in locating a bed. Her father explained that when he visited her on Tuesday around noon, she informed him she was still waiting for a bed to be assigned to her. At the same time, she was contemplating whether to go home and return on Wednesday for the surgery.
However, she was assigned a bed and underwent the surgery as scheduled. On Wednesday afternoon (November 16), her father said when he visited she was awake and said that she was okay.
“She drank coconut water and black tea without a sugar or milk and we left what was remaining there in case she got hungry during the night… When I go there Thursday, she said whole night she vomit. As soon as I could have ask her anything else she ask for the (bed) pan. She didn’t had no strain or anything, this vomiting just keep flow out. Within seconds this (bed) pan full,” the mother related.
She told her mother that the nurses knew of her situation and gave her the bedside pan. The mother said when they visited early Thursday morning a nurse’s aide was testing her pressure and checking her vitals.
The aide checked her pressure twice and when the now deceased woman asked how the results were looking, the nurse’s aide said that it was not good and told her the blood pressure levels were not “okay.”
She had a reading of 80/70, an indication of low blood pressure.
“She was so weak I didn’t know…she said she wanted to go the washroom and I said she taking long but she had to sponge herself down because the nurses said she had to do it. A person that is sick like that and did surgery they should have assisted,” the mother lamented.
Perspiring
The mother further stated when she checked on her daughter she observed her perspiring “and she said `mommy I am very weak’ and I took her back to her bed.”
She had a slice of toast and some tea and waited for the doctors to check in on her. The father said that when he visited his daughter around noon she said there had been no visit from her doctors.
“…when I went I took a Malta and some food for her but she said she didn’t want the food and I said drink some Malta but she said no because she was waiting for the doctors to visit and have an idea what was happening to her,” the father related.
The father explained that when he returned on Thursday afternoon for the final visit of the day, he saw his daughter’s bed surrounded by doctors.
“Maybe all the doctors from the hospital were there fighting up, I figured something was wrong but I walked in and they tell me go outside. I told them I was her father and they said go out… you know about three to five minutes after she lost consciousness and they said she crashed,” he added.
Shonnata was a patient at a private city hospital but was advised by her doctors to have the surgery done at GPHC. The parents said that the doctors are blaming the nurses for failing to record what was happening to their daughter.
One doctor claimed that she visited in the morning and everything was okay, but the father believes that was not so as his daughter had already said that she did not have any visits.
“(…the doctor) is saying she visit in the morning but then saying when she visited at three (pm) she knew something was wrong because Shonnata did pass any urine for eight hours. If you were there since 7 o’ clock how come you didn’t see something was wrong before?” the mother questioned.
After suffering cardiac arrest, Shonnata was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit for emergency treatment but later died with her family at her bedside.
The mother further stated that if indeed a doctor had visited her daughter during the course of the day, she would have questioned them as to what was happening. The family believes the complications leading to their daughter’s demise were as a result of poor post–operative care by doctors as she was in good spirits after the surgery.
Autopsy
The father said it is unclear as to what led to his daughter’s demise as the family has opted against an autopsy.
“She believe so much in doctors, she waited on them to come and they never showed up… but it makes no sense we cut her it won’t bring her back and we might be more angry if we know what cause her death so we just leave it like that,” the mother lamented.
Lisaveta Ramotar, her cousin and daughter of former President Ramotar, in a post on social media related that it was only after Shonnata collapsed that doctors directed the attention needed towards her.
“When she collapsed is when she finally started to get medical care but it was too late. It was too late not because the doctors did not try but because the nurses, the nurses neglected my cousin. She was even worried about upsetting them she told her dad not to tell them anything not to make them angry!!!” she said.
According to her account, the nurses never contacted the doctor to provide an update on her cousin’s deteriorating health.
“The doctor said that when she did her rounds in the morning that she got to know of the vomiting, and she gave her something to stop it. The doctor said that when she tested her pressure it was normal. During the morning visiting hours my aunt witnessed her pressure being taken and it was low. The doctor never got that reading. Throughout the day (Thursday) she was feeling weak, nauseous, had cold sweat and continued to have a low pressure. When she died, the doctor said that she went back to check the charts/records and it was never recorded that her pressure was low”, Lisaveta Ramotar said.
She contended that her cousin’s death is as a result of negligence by hospital staff.
“Government of Guyana is pouring billions and billions into health care – new facilities, new equipment, probably new specializations for doctors yet someone who had no kidney issues goes in to do a gallstones operations and dies of renal failure!!! None of the investment will help if we have nurses who are neglecting patient care, if we have systems that are not being updated to respond to these failures. If people are not held accountable for these deaths caused by NEGLIGENCE!!” Lisaveta Ramotar said.
Shonnata’s mother also questioned the meals being prepared for patients. She stated that while doctors advised against eating solid food post-surgery that is what the hospital has been giving patients. She said on two occasions, boxes of solid food such as cookup was left for her daughter.
Her mother stated that Shonnata had a heart of gold and was a dedicated teacher to her students. On many occasions she would spend her salary and sometimes even borrow from her parents to purchase items for her students.
During her sick days, she forced herself to go to school to be among her students, her mother stated. During the interview with this newspaper, both parents broke down as they remembered their daughter. The family said they are still considering whether they will file a formal complaint with the hospital. Shonnata leaves to mourn her parents and two siblings along with other family members.
