Horror at West Dem. Hospital…Family says “wrong injection” caused death of 15-year-old

Jan 14, 2013 News

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By Romila Boodram

Relatives of 15-year-old Shemar Miggins of Lot 7 Goed Fortune, West Bank Demerara (WBD) remain convinced that he died as a result of receiving the wrong injection, even as officials of the West Demerara Regional Hospital continue to probe the circumstances that led to his death.
The teenager died on Saturday, hours after he received an injection from a nurse at the medical institution where he had gone for treatment for an infection in his foot.
There have been numerous reports of how the 15-year-old Vreed-en-Hoop Community student met his demise.
Miggins’ aunt, Patricia Morrison, who is also a nurse at the said hospital, claimed that she was told too many stories surrounding her nephew’s death.
One of the stories is that the nurse at the center of the investigation told the police and the hospital’s Medical Superintendent as well as a relative of Miggins, that the 15-year-old complained of having burn stomach when she gave him a syringe filled with antacid (a substance which neutralizes stomach acidity) to hold.

She then went to another patient and, upon returning, she saw Miggins injecting himself with the medication. After observing what was happening, the nurse reportedly told investigators that she ran to the washroom.
Morrison said that she was given another version of events which claimed that the nurse gave the lad the medication and asked him to drink it, while she left and went for the washroom.
“Her story is just not adding up. First of all, he received the injection on his right hand and Shemar is a right hander, so how is it possible that he inject himself. To inject someone you have to use both hands, one to press the hand to see the vein and another to inject it, now tell me now can he inject himself,” an upset aunt queried.
The 15-year-old’s mother, Gillian Anderson said that a fish bone had injured her son’s foot on New Year’s Day, and to prevent any unwanted infection, he went to the West Demerara Regional Hospital the following day and received some medication including a few antibiotics.
Miggins, she said, used the prescribed tablets but his “little infection” turned worse since he started receiving severe pains and his foot started to swell.
He returned to the hospital on Wednesday last and “the doctors cut the wound and drain it out (inflammation) and admitted him. Upon admission, an X-ray and some lab test were suppose to be done but when I went to visit him nothing was done, so I had to go and make sure that they do it,” the teen’s aunt said while explaining that she was not on duty that day.
Miggins’ mother visited him in the hospital during lunchtime on Saturday. “He was good, good. He was sitting on his bed playing games on his phone.”
The woman explained that after visitation hour was over, she went downstairs in the waiting area to wait for the 04:00pm visit.
“While I was waiting, I see the doctor who was treating my son, run from the Outpatient to the Male Ward but I didn’t think anything because I left my son good,” Anderson told this newspaper.
Meanwhile, Morrison said she was at home when she received a call from the hospital, informing her that she should visit the hospital right away. “They say that he passed out, so I thought that he get black out and me and his uncle hurry and go.”

She said when she reached the hospital, she saw the doctor trying resuscitating her nephew, but there was no drug or anything thing present in the ward which was needed.
“There was no drug, no oxygen, nothing at all. I had to run to the Female Ward for drugs and his uncle had to fetch an oxygen cylinder from the Female Ward to the Male Ward,” the aunt said.
By then the lad had already passed away.
“After I was hearing all kind of things, I went to the Supervisor who was in charge of the morning shift to find out what really happened. But before I asked her anything, she asked me what I heard so I told her and she replied, ‘mistakes were made so that people could learn from them’ and the doctor told me that we shouldn’t tell the nurse anything because she is traumatized,” the lad’s aunt said.
According to Morrison, since her nephew’s demise, no hospital staff has given her their sympathy, “all they are telling me is that ‘y’all don’t tell her anything’ in a threatening manner.
“We want to know the truth and nothing but the truth,” relatives of the dead teen declared in unison.
Meanwhile, according to the government information and news agency (GINA) Top officials of the Ministry of Health responded immediately to the death of 15- year old Shemar Raymond Miggins.
Minister of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran dispatched senior officials of the Ministry of Health including the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr. Shamdeo Persaud and Dr. V. Bridjmohan, Head, WDRH Medical Staff and other officials from Region Three to the institution. The CMO immediately launched an investigation into the matter.
The Minister of Health said that he also alerted the police as he was concerned about the crowd outside the hospital complex. The crowd grew as word of the teen’s death spread.
According to GINA attempts were made to resuscitate Shemar Miggins but these were unsuccessful. The CMO has ordered a Post Mortem Examination (PME).
Minister Ramsaran subsequently met with the grieving mother and a relative, Clive Anderson. The Minister said that the Ministry is committed to fully supporting the grieving family. He undertook to have a full, expeditious investigation into the incident.
The Minister said that it was particularly distressing to have a preventable death occurring at the West Demerara Regional Hospital at this time since the MOH and the Institution over the past several months have been doing the very best to improve services and the hospital’s image.
Minister Ramsaran, while expressing extreme distress and shock at what had transpired also expressed satisfaction with the level of preparedness of the hospital’s staff  in caring for other critical cases – such as maternal cases  during the incident.

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