Pensioner, Health Ministry in court over daughter’s death

Aug 01, 2010 News

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– 68-year-old also battling NIS for survival benefits

By Michael Jordan

A diabetic grandmother is gearing for a David versus Goliath fight with the Ministry of Health and the National Insurance Scheme (NIS).
She is seeking financial recourse from one entity over the death of her daughter seven years ago, while trying to collect benefits that are due to her family from the other.
Miriam Crawford’s pregnant daughter, Deborah, died in 2003 at the New Amsterdam Hospital, allegedly because of a negligent physician.
Mrs. Crawford, a 68-year-old from Liverpool Village, Corentyne, has sued the Health Ministry, and that case is set to begin in the High Court this week.
The pensioner is also attempting to get her daughter’s NIS benefits, since Deborah is survived by a daughter who was only nine when her mother passed away.

But Mrs. Crawford, who is diabetic and also suffers from hypertension, alleges that she has been running from one NIS branch to another for the past seven years without being able to achieve this objective.
Tragedy came to her life in October 13, 2003, when her 38-year-old daughter, Deborah, from Corriverton, Corentyne, bled to death at the New Amsterdam Hospital, while delivering a full-term baby boy at the institution. The baby also died.
Investigations found that Ms. Crawford suffered massive hemorrhaging when a doctor attempted to have the baby, which was larger than usual, delivered normally.
A grief-stricken Mrs. Crawford sought recourse through the Guyana Medical Council.
In her statement to the Medical Council, the pensioner said that her daughter developed a diabetic condition during pregnancy and was being treated with insulin.
Because of the patient’s condition, a medic advised that the delivery be done by Caesarean section, since the diabetic condition would cause the baby to be larger than normal.
It is alleged that although this information was documented on the patient’s clinic card, the gynecologist ignored this advice and induced labour.
During the delivery, Crawford suffered massive hemorrhaging and her uterus was also removed.
Following an investigation, the Guyana Medical Council, headed then by the now-deceased Dr. M. Y Bacchus, found that the accused physician had committed “gross professional misconduct”.
He was subsequently struck off the Register of Medical Practitioners.
But the accused doctor took the Guyana Medical Council to court. He alleged that he was never notified of the allegation, or of the independent review the Council had taken to arrive at its decision.
The High Court subsequently ordered that the doctor be reinstated.
Undeterred, Mrs. Miriam Crawford filed a lawsuit against the Attorney General and the physician in 2006.
After a three-year-wait, she is due to have her day in court on Thursday.
Since her daughter’s death, Mrs. Miriam Crawford has also been engaged in a tussle with the NIS over benefits that are owed to one of her grandchildren.

Deborah is survived by two daughters.
The woman was attempting to secure finances to build a home for her children when her life was cut short.
Shortly after her daughter’s demise, Mrs. Crawford filed for Survivor’s Benefits for her younger grand-daughter. According to her, this was done at the NIS branch at Springlands, Corentyne.
She identified the official who filed the document.
“I waited, and waited, and after hearing nothing (from the NIS), I went back to them in 2006 and they said that they couldn’t find anything in the system,” she said.
According to Mrs. Miriam Crawford, another manager at the same branch investigated her case and was instructed by officials at the NIS branch in Georgetown to prepare another document.
“They had me running around while they were processing it. They said that they were checking her contributions.”
She explained that the document was reconstructed in 2006 and the NIS branch in Georgetown acknowledged receiving it in 2007.
That appeared to be going smoothly, but in 2009, NIS officials told Mrs. Crawford
that they had another problem.
“They said that they had “a problem” with the spelling of my name (both names of Mrs. Crawford and her daughter, Deborah were misspelled on documents she had submitted), and they sent me to a Justice of the Peace to rectify it.”
Around March of this year, after hearing nothing more about her matter, Mrs. Crawford called the NIS branch in Georgetown.
This time, an official told her that she had submitted her claim too late and as such, no Survivor’s Benefits would be paid.
“When they told me that, I told them that I have proof and I knew the manager who I had submitted the information to. The manager then acknowledged that the submission was made on time.”
The frustrated pensioner said that the NIS authorities have ignored her request that they state in writing why her application was rejected.
But Miriam Crawford said that she now has no other option than to take the matter a step further.
“My daughter worked hard. She made her contributions to society.”

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PNC, PPP have divided Guyana over past 50 years

– AFC

The Alliance For Change (AFC) is cautioning that Guyanese should “make no bones about it…Everyone knows that campaigning for the next election has started.”
According to the AFC the expertise that Guyana’s main political parties have acquired over the past 50 years in promoting division between the people is already apparent.
“Divide and rule is the tactic used…Reject it,” says the AFC
According to the party, “Racial stereotypes, abusive language, personal insult and characterizing free thinkers as traitors to their race, are now the standard fare of our newspapers, radio and television stations as well as in the use of the Internet and its new technologies such as Facebook.”
The party says that it wishes to be held to the highest standards of public scrutiny adding that it has never, and will never, descend to using these tactics as the means of garnering political support.
“Our appeal will always be to the best instincts of those who support us. Outside of this support, our appeal will always be to citizens who are tired of divisive politics and weary of crime and corruption…We are satisfied that the vast majority of Guyanese wish for a peaceful and productive future for themselves and their families.”
The party says that the citizens in communities all across the country keeps informing its leaders that they wish to be involved in the task of building a just, fair and stable society where citizens respect the rule of law and where their fundamental rights will be protected.
While the party conceded that the objectives will not be easy to fulfill, it will be that every citizen must demand opportunities for hard work and honest sacrifice as the only route to personal success;
“The practice of collecting taxes and distributing the country’s wealth and natural resources as gifts for supporters must be condemned as criminal acts; that we all share responsibilities for rooting out the bribery and corruption that has become the new way of conducting public business; that pandering to the worst instincts of human beings and promoting obscene new levels of racial division only serve to insult the intelligence of citizens, demean the respect we ought to have for each other and further destroy our social relations.”
The AFC says that as a young political party that is committed to the task of helping to build a safe, secure and productive future, its task is to give strength and hope to all members of our six races.

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