CMO spearheading detailed probe into woman’s death at Berbice Hospital

Feb 12, 2013 News

Spearheaded by Chief Medical Officer, Dr Shamdeo Persaud, a detailed investigation into the death of 47-year-old, Tirtawattie Shoandeo, during a blackout in the operating theatre at the New Amsterdam Hospital, has been launched.
As part of the investigation Dr Persaud, along with Permanent Secretary of the Health Ministry, Mr Leslie Cadogan, visited the medical institution where efforts were made to talk with the various health officials involved in the operation.
He noted though that a review of the medical management of the case for the patient found that everything appeared to be quite in order in terms of the operation and the decision to undertake the operation at that facility.
The only evident concern, according to Dr Persaud, is the fact that there were issues with some of the supporting services including electricity to the facility. “So we are looking at that and what were the lapses in terms of the automatic generator coming on when it should have.”
“Even for short periods of time the case was quite serious but even for short periods of time the contingency measures for the medical and nursing staff that had to be put in place, probably prolonged the surgery a little bit and kept her under anaesthesia a little longer,” mused Dr Persaud.
Nevertheless, he reiterated that the medical management was very much in order with the state of her condition.
He pointed to the fact that the Whim, Corentyne, Berbice resident was in fact in a very critical medical condition. “From the start it was quite difficult and that is why initially she wasn’t transferred to the Georgetown (Public) Hospital. It was decided that transferring her would have been detrimental so the decision was made together with consultation with the GPHC doctors to have the surgery done down there,” informed Dr Persaud.
A post mortem examination done on the remains of the woman revealed that she died of septicaemia and perforated duodenal ulcer.
Minister of Health, Dr Bheri Ramsaran, in an earlier interview with this publication insisted that since the patient did not die on the table it is “a bit precipitate” to say that the patient died because of the blackout.
“There are other cases when patients are on the table and there are blackouts and they do not die, but I do know that this patient was in a very critical condition which was confirmed by the post mortem and findings during surgery.”
He added that the surgeon, a well-trained Guyanese doctor, was performing the operation with the support of his team when the blackout occurred just after 22:00 hours on January 20.
“And of course, the machines used in the surgery to keep the patient alive and well could not be operated, therefore the team continued to sustain her and support her breathing and other functions, manually.”
An instrument, called an ambu bag (manual resuscitator), could have been used by the surgeons, “which can be used in place of the mechanical device used to support them when there is electricity,” Minister Ramsaran explained.
He speculated that the doctor was using that, [and] “from all indications, the patient was sustained and surgery was completed.”
The Minister also noted that preliminary reports and investigations have concluded that the patient was suffering from a serious internal condition “and that would have added to her burden of the disease, putting on a critical condition”.
Additionally, the preliminary indications found by a team which was immediately dispatched to the state-of-the-art hospital, the Minister said, showed that the automatic switch on the standby generator was non–functional, [and] “apparently, this had been so for some time and that is why I am convinced that something should have been done before to have it fixed.
“And we are looking into that to see how we can rectify the situation” said the Minister even as he stated that the generator is a fairly new piece of equipment. “We need to look at this [situation] as a management problem.”

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CMO spearheading detailed probe into woman’s death at Berbice Hospital

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