The mother of five-year-old Jai-Devi Gurdyal who died at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) in September, is still awaiting answers and documents pertaining to her child’s death.
Umawattie Gonace, who spoke with Stabroek News on Saturday, said she has still not received any of the medical files with details about her daughter from either the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH), or the GPH.
“I made contact with Best Hospital [WDRH] and I went there. They said the record has to go from hand to hand before I can receive it,” she related.
She said that just last week she had informed the hospital of her intention to pursue legal action if they did not release her daughter’s files, and she fears they might attempt to falsify the records.
A grieving Gonace stated that she is seeking justice for her child, and while she is not looking for monetary gain, she wants those responsible to be held accountable for the mismanagement of her daughter’s case. “Nothing can bring back my child. I just want the doctors to take more precaution and the doctor on duty that night at Best Hospital to come forward and relate what happened. That was my only daughter,” she lamented.
Stabroek News asked whether the Ministry of Health has offered any assistance. She replied, “They aren’t doing anything and have maintained radio silence on the situation. I spoke to the Chief Medical Officer Narine Singh’s assistant, who keeps telling me that they are still in the process of getting the documents.
“I am considering to write to the President to inform him about the ups and downs that they have me doing but that too is a process that is long [and] as a mother it hurts.”
Gonace spoke of wanting to give up after being turned away time and time again by the WDRH. She also noted the hospital’s refusal to let her know who the doctor was that took care of her daughter the evening they went to the hospital.
Gonace’s daughter died at the GPH after suffering an asthma attack and relatives said they were told she had been overdosed on antibiotics at the WDRH, before her admission to the GPH.
Gonace had told this newspaper in September that she noticed that Jai Devi had come down with a slight cold which then progressed into a full-blown fever. When she observed that the five-year-old was not breathing well, she and her husband, Anil Gurdyal, took her to the WDRH.
The doctor on duty had examined their daughter and noted that she was indeed short of breath. The doctor subsequently told the child to open her mouth so that he could check her throat, but she did not open wide enough, so he told the parents to restrain her so he could check her throat properly. “He said she had a tonsil, then he started to write up to give her medication,” the mother had said. “He said she would have to get saline.”
Gonace recalled that the doctor then drew blood from the child. “One of the nurses asked if she would be taking that blood sample to the lab, he told her no and that if anything happens and she needs to get admitted to the hospital then the blood would be taken to the lab,” the mother had related.
She noticed that as the medical staff began administering the saline, they also brought a syringe containing an antibiotic and gave it to the child along with oxygen.
Moments later, Jai Devi began to vomit uncontrollably and the doctor instructed that she be given another dose of the antibiotic.
She fell asleep, but awakened ten minutes later, removing her oxygen mask and panting for breath. Gonace said she then asked the doctor to come and look at her child while simultaneously trying to contact her husband who had left to check on their other two children at home. She remembered being yelled at by the nurse on duty for using her cellphone and instructed to put it away.
A decision was then made to transfer Jai Devi to the GPH where the family was told by other medical professionals that WDRH had overdosed the child on antibiotics.
