GPHC launches probe into death of 77-year-old woman

Jul 12, 2012 News

…daughter claims hospital negligence

In wake of the controversial death of 77-year-old Ernestine Hernandez, the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) management has launched a probe into the matter. This is according to the hospital’s public relations officer, Alero Proctor.
Proctor said that if hospital staff members are found to be guilty of negligence, causing the death of the woman, they are likely to be dismissed from duty. She said that the hospital will later issue a press statement on the matter.

Ernestine Hernandez

After losing her mother at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), a distressed Anne Hernandez said that a lack of patient care and professional ethics caused her mother’s demise. Her mother, Ernestine, of Montrose, East Coast Demerara succumbed on June 23, last after she was admitted for two days at the medical facility.
According to Anne Hernandez, it is depressing when a public medical institution has personnel who are employed to care for the sick, and neglect their duties.
The woman lamented that her mother was admitted to the GPHC on June 21 last. Two days later she died, and a post mortem was not performed.
Reports are that when Hernandez received the news of her mother’s constant vomiting and what appeared to be a stroke, she was in the city at that time and visited the GPHC where she made a call through the switchboard requesting an ambulance since she noticed one was in the compound.
The woman said that she was told that no ambulance was available. She called another hospital and an ambulance was provided promptly. Hernandez said that when her mother arrived at the emergency section of the facility the two foreign doctors on duty appeared least concerned about her suffering.
The following day, when the woman reportedly visited her mother, she said it was clear that the situation had gotten worse since she was also told by other patients that the nurses and doctors were not checking on her mother.
“When I asked to speak to the doctor on duty, she had no idea what was going on and asked me to get the chart and she told me to come back Monday to see the doctor. My mother had already died by then. When the hospital call and I reached there, my mother’s limbs were like solid pieces of wood, Rigor Mortis had already stepped in.”