Widow blames hospital’s poor service for husband’s death

Sep 02, 2013 News

A mother of six, who is pregnant with her seventh child, is contemplating life without her husband, who died recently from a snake bite. In fact, 42-year-old Indra Peters says that while school reopens today, her children might not be able to attend classes until next week, since their father was unable to fulfill their requirements for the new term.

Dead: 53-year-old
Keith Sampson

More importantly, Peters is seeking the authority’s intervention since she is convinced that her husband’s death was as a result of the poor medical service he received at the Linden Hospital. The Kuru Kuru Soesdyke/Linden Highway resident said that her husband was kept at the Hospital for two days, but received no treatment for the snake bite.
Peters said that while there was no doctor available to tend to her husband, she was denied permission to take him to another health facility. By the time she got that authorization, it was too late, because her husband died a couple hours later.
Peters told Kaieteur News that she had been with her 53-year-old husband, Keith Sampson for some 22 years. At the time of his death, they were raising five children, where he was the breadwinner and she the stay-at-home mother. Peters explained that three of the children are going to school; one lives with a relative, while the other two completed secondary school and are unemployed.
She explained that on Saturday August 10th, Sampson was bitten by a snake in the Mabura area while plying his trade as a lumberjack. She said she received news about the incident via her oldest son. She then rushed to the Linden hospital, where her husband had been taken, arriving there just before nightfall.
Peters stated that her husband told her that around 11:30 hours on that day, he was bitten on the right little finger. A tractor brought him out to the Mabura trail where a waiting ambulance took him to the Linden Hospital where he was admitted.
At the time, she said her husband related that he had not received treatment for the bite, while it was understood that no doctor was at work.
Peters said, knowing the seriousness of her husband’s case, she pleaded with the on-duty nurses to let her take him to the Diamond or Georgetown Hospital where he could be treated. She said they denied and told her that a doctor has to see her husband before he could be referred. During that time, she said her husband was only given saline.

Indra Peters (with sun shades) with two of her children.

Peters told this newspaper that she reluctantly left her husband and went home. Early the next day, she was back at the hospital, but by then, her husband was spitting and urinating blood, yet there was no doctor to tend to him and he still did not receive medical treatment.
Peters said when she approached the nurses they repeated that her husband had to see a doctor before he could be referred elsewhere. She said this infuriated her and she raised her voice at the nurses, who in turn, started “hollering” on her.
Peters explained that since she is pregnant, she had to back down because her breathing got heavy. The nurses however, got on the phone and spoke with a person who they said was a doctor and they were given instructions.
The woman stated that after making another request, she was finally given the go-ahead to take her husband to the city for treatment.
Peters said her husband arrived at the Georgetown Public Hospital at around 18:00hours that Sunday and by 22:00hours that evening, he was dead.
She said medical personnel at the GPHC told her that the husband’s body had already been contaminated.
The following Friday, a post mortem examination confirmed that Sampson had died as a result of the snake bite.
Peters said she has not been able to make contact with the authorities as she is strapped for cash.
This newspaper contacted Health Minister Bheri Ramsarran on the matter and he promised to address the issue at another time since he was in a meeting. Several subsequent attempts to contact the Minister failed.

4 thoughts on “Widow blames hospital’s poor service for husband’s death”

Andy Baig September 2, 2013 at 1:49 am

What is with all of these people in authority, who are/were elected to look after the citizens? As soon as there is a problem and the citizens or media try to contact them….”he/she is in a meeting!” What is so pressing in Guyana, that you cannot get anyone in authority to respond or approach a problem with a favorable response or answer to alleviate the citizens concerns? And what are all of these meetings about and what are you all solving in these meetings? It is only at election time that this lot makes promises to “woo” these same people to vote them back in power where they or others commit the same fallacy!!
There are so many murders going on, robberies,senseless deaths and traffic fatalities….it does not seem to abate! I have left Guyana 33 years ago, came back several times to visit, love it, but coming back to live? No way! You cant get anything done in a proper, decent, bribe free, legal way! Something corrupt has to take place before you can see/talk to whoever is being paid/supposed to get the said transaction done!!
Case in point, Mr. Bheri Ramsarran….She lost her husband, she is pregnant, her kids need/have to go to school, yet your sorry ass is in a meeting and will address the issue at ANOTHER TIME? Have you lost your god-damn mind? You lot need to tighten your ass up and be held accountable! The leader in charge is just as accountable and needs to have this addressed. All because of a snake bite!! Lady, you should not have listened to the nurse ( I am sure she is not a qualified, degreed nurse, anyway, cause she would have known better!) and hauled your husband out of this so called “hospital”…where there is no doctor on duty!
Guyana…….you all need to live up to a changing world, changing world economy and respect for your citizens…. if it were not for them, the citizens…moist of you are and would be nothing!! tighten y’all asses up!
rancher September 2, 2013 at 9:12 am

No doctor on duty, disgusting. I’m so glad I’m out of Guyana
rancher September 2, 2013 at 9:14 am

No doctor on duty, disgusting, I’m so glad I’m out of Guyana
linafree September 2, 2013 at 3:20 pm

oh lady, you should not have waited for permission! if this was my family member and i saw he wasn’t getting the care necessary to save his life, no one would have been able to stop me from moving him! Linden hospital is definitely to blame but man, Guyanese people too damn passive! we do not have to keep waiting for permission to do what we know is right!