The family of five-year-old Jai-Devi Gurdyal is seeking answers regarding their daughter’s tragic passing and they have expressed dissatisfaction with the Post-Mortem Examination (PME) results which listed the girl’s cause of death as asthma.
Stabroek News yesterday spoke with Jai-Devi’s mother, Umawattie Gonace, who expressed disbelief at the reported cause of death.
According to Gonace, no relatives were allowed to witness the PME and the examining doctor said that this was due to the matter being under police investigation. According to Gonace, the family was told that only the police and examining doctor were allowed to be present. The mother explained that the family sought a second private post-mortem, but this was denied. Gonace said the family was informed that due to the police involvement a second autopsy was not possible. Their request to retrieve their daughter’s body was also denied.
The mother further informed the Stabroek News that in their pursuit to unsuccessfully retrieve their child’s medical records from the hospital, they faced numerous hurdles. Initially, at the Intensive Care Unit, they were told the records were inaccessible since the child had passed away. They were subsequently directed to the emergency section, where they were provided with an identical response. Their final attempt at the hospital’s help desk was also in vain, as they were directed to the records room only to find no records available. The grieving mother is now demanding justice for her daughter, hoping that those accountable will step forward to explain what transpired.
Gonace explained to Stabroek News that, “Many times we visited the hospital for wheezing and asthma, and never has she been treated like this. Once, she had a lung infection and an asthma attack simultaneously, and she survived. How can she pass away now?”
Gurdyal passed away at the Georgetown Public Hospital on Friday after suffering an asthma attack and relatives say they were told she had been overdosed on antibiotics at the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH) earlier that morning.
According to Gonace, the doctors at the GPH told her that her child was overdosed on antibiotics at the West Demerara Hospital. “She was supposed to be given three doses of antibiotics; they ended up giving her six within half an hour.”
The grieving mother, recalling her daughter’s last moments, said that they had asked countless times to be let into the ICU to be by their child’s side, but unfortunately, she passed before they were allowed to enter. It was only after that she was allowed in along with her husband.
Jai-Devi was a pupil at the Cornelia Ida Primary School.
