ALIVE FOR 5 HOURS
By Carol Matroo
March 14, 2014 – newsday.co.tt
BABY Simeon lived for five hours after he was delivered from his mother’s womb in a Caesari an section surgery at Mt Hope Women’s Hospital on March 1. However, he bled to death from a cut to his head sustained during his mother, Quelly Ann Cottle’s surgery, a laceration that was deep enough to penetrate the brain tissue.
Sources said the team of doctors, in a panic, failed to perform surgery on the baby to stop the bleeding, despite pleas for them to do so from the specialist obstetrician who made the laceration to the baby’s head when he cut too deep into Cottle’s womb before removing the baby.
As a team of junior doctors failed to seek the advice of senior doctors on how to stop the bleeding, the baby bled to death as he lay in a cot in the nursery. This was the claim made by a source from the University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine yesterday.
The source said after the baby was born and the obstetrician saw the cut, he referred the baby to a junior paediatric officer who in turn gave the baby to a paediatric surgeon, also a junior doctor, who turned the baby over to a junior neurosurgical doctor.
The source claimed the neurosurgeon decided not to operate on baby Simeon, who continued to bleed from the head wound. “All this time, the specialist doctor who performed the C-Section was begging the RHA staff to perform surgery to save the baby’s life, but everyone was running around and passing the baby off to each other, not wanting to take responsibility in trying to save the baby’s life,” the UWI source claimed.
Contacted yesterday, Cottle said she was unsure of the time lapse when doctors returned her child’s body to her. Cottle was placed under regional anaesthesia for the surgery, which meant while she felt no pain, she would have been awake and aware of her surroundings.
The baby’s father, Emil Millington, said he is unaware of this latest development and asked, “what do we have here then? Murder or manslaughter?”
Millington also said they are expected to receive the result of a second autopsy today. “Somebody from the hospital called and said to come for the report tomorrow. They can’t stand me down anymore, how much more stand down they could give me,” he asked.
Millington said they were advised by their attorney Colin Selvon not to make any funeral arrangements until they get the report and to only do so if they are satisfied with the findings. If they are not satisfied, they should be prepared to have a third autopsy done.
“The hospital offered me counselling, but I told them I don’t need that, I need anger management because I’m becoming more and more angry everyday,” the frustrated father said. Millington said it was a difficult time for the entire family, more so his wife.
“She said when the baby was born, the doctor did not have to do anything with the baby, he was crying on his own. She knew she gave birth to a live baby who died because of carelessness. That is something that will ring through her for the rest of her life,” Millington told Newsday.
It was reported that the doctor, who had only recently received his specialist paediatrician licence and is MRCOG certified, performed the surgery with no consultant present. The UWI source placed the blame for the baby’s death squarely on NCRHA staff present in theatre and not the UWI consultant who was not present.
The baby’s death is now the subject of high level investigations involving internal probes by the NCRHA, the Medical Council and an investigation that will be led by a foreign specialist, the latter probe being ordered by Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan.
The specialist doctor who performed the C-Section has since been sent on leave with basic pay while investigations are ongoing.
The UWI source accused persons within the NCRHA of leaking information to the media in an attempt to cast blame on a UWI-employed lecturer/consultant who was not present at the surgery.
However, the source said the Ministry of Health regulations make it clear that a consultant does not automatically have to be present at a C-Section surgery.
The source said the onus was on the specialist doctor to oversee the surgery while the consultant was there only in an advisory capacity. He said persons within the RHA have sought to paint UWI and its Department of Medical Sciences as being laws unto themselves.
For some time now the standards at UWI have been under suspicion, not only in medicine but in every faculty, from law to medicine.
These too frequent “accidents” are becoming common place in the hospitals of T&T.UWI should stop relishing in its past glory and examine its present standards and training of its graduates before it completely loses its questionable international recognition.
The parents of this child should sue the pants off these doctors. Unfortunately, in the system in T&T, it’s the taxpayers who would be picking up the tab.
I have no idea what mix of UWI vs UK training these docs had bou MRCOG is a UK diploma.
The hospital should have done what it could to save the life of the child. New borns are highly resistant and able to overcome all kinds of odds. The doctors should have stitched up the baby and allow the natural process of healing to occur. I can’t understand why they left the child to die, the child was alive for 5 hours. Yes the cut was deep even exposing the brain but even under such circumstances a child can survive.
You “… can’t understand why they left the child to die,…” Mamboo? Still drinking those Moruga bushrum, and trying to deceive, us the more level headed , progresive folks on Trini Center Nation , huh buddy?
Sorry but your attempts , will fail, for you know exactly what is at stake here. Some much wiser than myself would say , it a continual systematic, trickle down policy of blatant GENOCIDE, as perpetuated my members of ‘Brown Triumphalist nations,’ against their more docile/ peaceful ,Afro Trini cousins, and who am I to question such logic?
Seems like only yesterday, when UWI Medical Professor, and Caroni MP ,Gopiesing was lambasting the PNM leadership,or is it elite members of ‘Kinky Head Nation ,’for not hiring one of his many ex students , who interviewed fora job.
In his twisted mind , that was an act of ethnic cleansing.
Now fast forwards to this era, where him, and fellow Cabral members , rule the political roost,where these repeated murders , and purges are taking place right before his ample nose, and yet,he remains silent like a drunken water buffalo. Go figure!
Oh , so the disingenuous, historically unempathetic, Manitoba-Trini character ,called T Man , think the State should not be held responsible for one of it’s institution’s doctor’s gross negligence?
Now if this doctor, or his party freak mentor were either Nigerian, or Cuban , wanna bet, both TMan , and his selectively outraged AG , would be calling for the death penalty, ennnt TMan?
Hey Neal! Good to see you back. It is always good when Rodwell and yourself engage our good friends on the other side of whats REALLY happening.
Doctors should have private medical malpractice insurance for situations like this. The state should not be held responsible for such errors. A nurse who practised for over 40 years in the delivery room informed me that she had NEVER heard of such gross incompetence.
Could not agree with you more Neal. Miss your astute and artful breaking down and exposing of the deceitful and hypocritical chest beatings of these Orwellian porcine revolutionaries. More and more it highlights and authenticates the miserable policy that the politically stratified dalits under the current regime have no rights which they feel obligated to recognize and respect.
It is unfortunate for this child to lose his life in such circumstance and this is where the law and precedent must be established against the incompetence from this professional. Now, extreme terms of genocide and ethnic cleansing being derived from so called logic by the bloggers and described as artful is definitely moving from the sublime to the ridiculous. So tell me you (a black Trini patient) need an emergency surgical operation must be careful to check and see that it is not a brown triumphalist surgeon going to perform such operation. Are you going to get off the table and run like hell? Man, the colour of your blood is certainly not red in case you need a transfusion down the road. Better yet, get a porcine valve replacing yours (aortic) in your heart and see if you will start speaking with forked tongue to know the meaning of hypocrisy. Sorry, you got the pisa you will go overseas for treatment.
Get your facts straight Royal … umm Loyal Trini.Folks like myself,Brother Rodwell,&Cuz Kian, can hop on a plane , anytime we wish ,and go to medical tourism haven Cuba, just like Patios Manning, when we have an ailment.Since we possess the means ,we can likewise , follow the lead of Basdeo Panday, of “Dis is our time “fame ,and his ardent protégée,Queen Kamla-aka Indira Gandhi, reincarnated,& so skip across to Miami, Bridgetown Barbados,Scotland , or high end Ottawa, if the need arise. If these morally reprehensible bastards , ain’t trust our local medical system ,then why should we? Tell you what folks-as to his gripe-since the end of the globally divisive Cold War,the twin evils of Genocide, and we can throw in terrorism,has continued unabated , and will do so ,long into the future .There are several simple reasons for that. Folks like dis Trini Loyal character ,self serving,elitist, policy wonks, on national , or international quarters,diabolical , neo tribal leaders (especially in political circles),pretend’s to not know ,what it is, or the ‘real victims ,’are in a quandary, as to what they are confronting , until it’s too late. We the astute, humanistic progressives, will however not be sidetrack/intimidated , in our quest to help make our underachieving , and seemingly lawless,Twin Island Republic into the Economic , and Politically transparent ,polish gem , it can be. Part of that entails , keeping dem barbarians from overrunning the Trini Pearly gates, and holding power brokers hands to the fire, where warranted. Thanks for the Cyber luv guys.Getting ready to up the ante , so stay tuned. Long live T&T! Stay vigilant!
Don’t be an ass Loyal Trini, and ever I saw a misnomer that certainly is one. Your attempt to sanitize what is a reality in T&T is expected of course. The Orwellian Porcine revolutionary reference was intended for these automatic “yo all crazy” standard reactions whenever lever moves close to the mark, in a manner of speaking. True to form, it lives up to the description.
The prism thru which you view reality is structured to protect sacred cows and promote a social order inimical to the interest of Africans, so what else can one expect from you. If every social malady that infect human habitations represented a dysfunction of law and ignoring of precedent, we would all be living in utopias, because resolutions would be a statute or bill away. But the world is not constructed in that manner, and basic commonsense should inform even the most obtuse that regardless of law and adherence or non adherence to precedent, it is the cultural attitudes and behaviors within a power structure that will determine whether the quality of life in some communities will be impacted positively, or negatively.
I mean I am really trying to resist the urge to give a description to your response that it deserves. Because it follows the trend, the guilt tripping, silly, disingenuous pattern that in judicial matters is termed, “..coming to the court with dirty hands..”. Yes, so if I lived in South Africa during apartheid and criticized the system of Governance over the fact of unequal treatment that exist in health care, the narrative you laid out there would probably be the response. They would run all over the place just to get away from dealing with what exist, and yes, the people who are shouting that the damn emperor was naked would be labeled as the ones too blind to see the exquisitely fine garments the emperor was wearing.
So please, spare us the lecture because you are far from a objective and non partisan element in these exchanges. That you somehow are under this illusion is not strange, because you guys live in a bubble world where you hear and see only that which comports with your irrational psychology. So what you do not choose to see do not exist, an adult selective pre-operational way of viewing the world. SMH.
Absolute hogwash and as expected asinine responses. If I pretend not to see as you put it then you should allow the scales in your eyes to drop to see that your vision is skewed and mind is biased. As your actions in writing reflect the baseness of your thoughts you generate. The problem is, what part of your anatomy? Maybe you may refer to it as irrational psychology, you guys need to become patients that I should be attending to. The sympathy is extended to this child parents and the politicization from you’ll using racial undertones i.e. Guyananrization and Fijiitis from previous blogs on different subjects should be confronted by a firing squad. For your information, I did live in South Africa and did a lot for the ANC. Take your skewed diatribe and search for residence on a distant planet.
Patton is an angry, disgruntled bigot who probably has been psychologically traumatised by growing up in Guyana. His comments suggests that he is totally envious of the success and social and financial advancement of Indians wherever they choose to live. He is now enslaved in some US inner city where he pretends to know what’s going on in T&T. He applies the same biased racial constructs based on his traumatic experiences in the USA in a feeble attempt to pontificate on Indians in the universe. He continues to repeat the same racist theme in every contribution to this website. His language tricks include name-calling, generalizations, biased, bigoted opinions, and abuse. Pity.
“…I did live in South Africa and did a lot for the ANC..” You forgot to add ,for our convenience …’and have lots of Blacks/ Africans , or as you , and kind ,would prefer , Kinky Head friends, Loyal Trini.
Hey members of Trini Center Nation,it just does not get more hilarious than this, hmmn?See how he forcefully sneak in -so as to impress us-that he too is ‘one oh dem glorified doctors?’Guess what big fella, ….we do not care , especially, since as I suspect, you too are one of the social bandits , who would draw large salaries ,to work in our hospitals, all the while providing shoddy/sub par services , then you and fellow local elites , would nudge poor , overwhelmed patients, to come to your comfortable , corporate private health care facilities , to get the same service , at exorbitant cost.
Wake me up when you are no longer in the mood to engage in over the top bragging, and typical condescending chatter towards those you naively think , are tour inferiors.
Not sure where my fellow , post racial , anti tribal , progressive brothers think , but I personally do not give a hoot as to weather, you Loyal Trini ,grew up in the Soweto ghettos, or you administered your services personally, to Nelson Mandela , or Winnie , and his kids ,when he was a prisoner, under the SA,racist regime.All I care about , is your role beyond self aggrandizement, in the interest of the T&T poor , and less fortunate.
1 month ago , I encountered ,via my ethnographic research work, a recently divorced ,Indo Trini ,young lady, who was living in the Bamboo, though originally from Mayaro. She was told by neo bureaucratic officials,that she could not visit the Mt Hope , or St Joseph child clinic with her sick son,- like the high end Valsayne folks -but Mousica Tunaouna. Go figure! I felt her pain ,but was powerless to help.Offer some advice , and redeem yourself -with this idle gloating, Loyal Trini!
Since when you are feeling the pain for an Indo lady with an ill son, since you are your comrades gloat about and express anti-Indian sentiments all the time in most submissions. The dis-respect you all accord to the Prime Minister for example. We are becoming a laughing stock in the eyes of internationals who read this type of nonsense. Bull crap to you by being a dead beat ex-police cop who seems pre-occupied of my status and to boot it seeking endorsement from your kind, rather than to make positive and encouraging statements to uplift the people of this land on collective, energized, and enterprising actions. Learn to take a negative and convert it into a positive instead of seizing the opportunity to toxify the minds of many people on racist innuendos to say the least through this medium. There are people of all races in this land who contribute to the buildup of this nation and there are some parasites who love to feed from the trough. Guys get it into your head that this society that is ours is a nation of many races no one is more superior to the other. The blessed thing is many people live peacefully and co-exist and enjoy the resources of this land. If it is remonstrative that the blogs submitted from you all is a reflection of progress in this society it is simply symbolic of you all being stymied in a decrepit learning of your past. Get real and if you are prepared to make some progress in your contribution then make some changes now.
“Since when you are feeling the pain for an Indo lady with an ill son!!!!” Dr.Royal Trini
It’s simply sad , but true folks, for each time I try to have a cyber dialogue with this guy call Royal Trini, it feels as if I am working too hard as a glorified ,High School Guidance Counselor, or Social therapist ,to get through to a delinquent knucklehead , on a runaway part to self destruction, that thinks ,the world hates him, while he alone is right. Sorry kid, but I no longer have the energy, for the likes of you – especially if you are so dense , and possess such a putrid mind , to think that I wont have empathy for one of my fellow citizen-brother, sister , or child-who so happened to be an Indo Trini.
Go read my past blogs Trini royal , as you would see that I have been fearless in my commentaries on any subject, and everyone,irrespective of who they are .
I will extend compliments where necessary, and constructive criticism, where warranted.
I have no allegiance to any person , race , class, age , gender,or region across the globe.
The reasons are simple.Call me idealistic, but I am a Global Humanist, whose goal moving forward ,is to strive to ensure peace , security, economic justice , and political empowerment , become a reality for all.
By the way, my record is not only that of a -“..a dead beat ex-police cop..,”as you so comically alluded ,but likewise ,served 23 years at the UN, observing closely life on the grand international stage , where leaders use , and misuse the poor , and weak, for the furtherance of their own self interest.
Likewise, the subjects that I choose to speak about , I consider myself to be an authority on -with the credentials to back it up.I know ., in your twisted view , the only educate people , are doctors , and lawyers.
Unfortunately, we in T&T , are saddled with too many- especially of the incompetent kind, si? Lighten up kid!Luv Humaniy!