Man dies under hospital bed, nurses find him later

Feb 23, 2014 News

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Brian Aaron, a resident of Bartica yesterday succumbed at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), after his wife took him there suffering from abdominal pains and shortness of breath.

That would not be unusual but the man died while awaiting medical attention in the Accident and Emergency Unit.
Aaron, 47, a taxi driver lived with his wife at Three Mile Bartica Potaro road. The dead man’s wife, Shevon Layne, who was visibly shaken and in tears, detailed events leading up to her husband’s demise.
She said that he was getting shortness of breath and complaining of stomach pains so she decided to take him first to the Bartica Hospital.
According to the woman, that hospital doesn’t have the equipment to do the necessary tests, so she took him to the Leonora Cottage Hospital, West Coast Demerara to do an X-ray and ultrasound. She said that the doctor suspected an ulcerated stomach but the Leonora Cottage Hospital didn’t have an ultrasound machine and as such they were sent to the West Demerara Regional Hospital located at Best on the West Coast Demerara.
Layne said that the West Demerara Regional Hospital didn’t have any gel to do an ultra sound so she decided to take him to Woodlands Hospital to have it done and get a second opinion.
She said that the doctor there ran some tests on him and determined that something was wrong with his kidneys.
Layne said that the doctor then advised her to take her husband to GPHC since treatment there would be affordable, because if he was admitted it would cost $50,000 a day without treatment.
The woman said that when she brought him to the GPHC at 15:00 hours on Saturday, “we had to beg and beg to try to get him in.”
“Afterwards, they took him in a provided him with oxygen for a very long time, and when we went to check on him we were treated like animals.
“When you go in and ask anything about your patient, they hollering on you. I feel we have a right to know what is going on with him.”
Layne said that she got on to somebody she knew, to get some help. She said that afterwards, the doctors came and they called for us and took some blood samples around 8pm.
“They said that within two hours the results will be ready. When that was done he was taken to get an x-ray. Two hours passed and nothing was done. We were still getting a hard time to still see him,” said Layne.
It was after 1am Sunday morning Layne explained that she and her family members “were still outside waiting on him. He was still in the chair taking oxygen. They then called us and told us he has a problem with his pancreas.
“They said everything they tested for came back high so most likely he had to get admitted for treatment but we still waited around.”
“We were advised that is best we go and come back in the morning because he still had to spend the night in the hospital and when they were finished with him he will be placed in the ward.”
She explained that the doctor at GPHC said that he had a problem with his pancreas, that it isn’t functioning properly “so I said what will be the possibility that he would make it. The doctor said that she doesn’t see a possibility that he wouldn’t make it because they didn’t find anything that would lead to his death. She gave us all hope that everything will be alright.”
The woman said they left and came back Sunday morning and found him sitting in a chair in the Accident and Emergency blowing.
“He was short of breath and I went to them and I said he got admitted since last night, they were to put him in the ward but they told me the ward full.”
She said that he was eventually transferred to the ward and she enquired from him if he wanted anything to drink. She said that he didn’t know what he wanted so she thought that tea would be good.
When she went for the tea and came back they couldn’t find him anywhere in the ward.
The woman said that she was asking the nurse but “nobody knew where he was even though all of them went right there. We searched all over, in the toilet, everywhere, but we couldn’t find him,” the dead man’s wife related.
She said that she moved off  then heard the nurses say “call too porter quick call two attendants quick”. When she checked they were pumping his chest.
“When we found out what happened they said he went to the toilet and when he came back he fell down. But when we checked the toilet earlier we didn’t see him there.
“We got to understand that he fell and was under the bed and that’s where they found him and picked him up and tried to pump his heart.”
The woman said that the doctor called them and told them that the man was going to the bathroom and he fell and they tried to resuscitate him but he didn’t make. “But I’m saying that we were looking all over for him. We even checked the bathroom at the time they said that he was there and we would’ve seen him. All of us searched all over not knowing that he fell under a bed.”
Layne said that she didn’t know if he fell and knocked his head “because when we went in the mortuary his head was bleeding and it wasn’t bleeding in the ward.”
The woman said that it’s too early to determine a way forward and they are awaiting the results of the post mortem which will be done on Tuesday.
Kaieteur News understands that the GPHC will be issuing a statement on Aaron’s death.

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