Death in Guyana, Death in Trinidad. So?

Apr 09, 2014 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

A hospital in Trinidad turned away a Guyanese whose life, because of the nature of his illness, could have been saved if he had received emergency attention. The quicker you get treatment, the greater your chance of staying alive when a heart attack is on its way. This man’s death was an unnecessary tragedy.
Soon after the death, crocodile tears began pouring down in certain quarters in Guyana, with the Minister of Foreign Affairs saying that Guyana doesn’t refuse emergency treatment to foreigners. That is true. What is true also is that the emergency treatment is on paper. What took place in Trinidad takes place here. The man died in Trinidad where he does not pay taxes and where he does not live, and where the hospital may feel that they have no obligation to him.
All of this is wrong of course. They should have offered emergency treatment. He was a human. His life was worth saving. The reality however is in Guyana, we do the same thing, only this time it is to Guyanese who live and pay taxes here. In Trinidad there may be a professional investigation as to what happened at that hospital. In Guyana, we kill people at the Georgetown and Berbice hospitals and relatives are abused when they ask for explanations.
Let me say boldly and unambiguously – what happened with that Guyanese man in Trinidad occurs in more cruel fashion at the Georgetown Hospital. Guyanese should feel sympathy for the man’s relatives, but they should wake up and face reality; worse happens at the Georgetown Hospital.
I am an authority on the horror story that is the Georgetown Hospital. In my columns, I must have devoted more than a dozen of the past fifteen years in exposing unnecessary deaths at this hospital. Let me say boldly and unambiguously again – the Georgetown Hospital kills people. I make no apology for that statement and will repeat it in any forum anywhere in the world. It is based on research.
If there is any area where the PPP Government is beyond redemption it is the function of the Georgetown Hospital. If there is any reason why you should vote against the incumbent government it is for the non-functioning of the Georgetown Hospital. What happened to that unfortunate Guyanese in Trinidad happens to foreigners and Guyanese at the Georgetown Hospital.
Here are two examples. My Chinese neighbour on Hadfield Street was shot by robbers and died because of internal bleeding. That man sat on a bench at A&E for almost ten hours. While waiting, his internal organs were being poisoned. I will never forget the tears his wife and children shed in front of my wife and mother-in-law.
The words of the Foreign Minister that Guyana doesn’t turn back foreigners in case of emergency are utter nonsense. We don’t turn them back. We don’t look at them and we let them die.
No senior journalist in Guyana could look me in the eyes and tell that they have not had their share of horror stories of death and neglect at the Georgetown Hospital. A Cane Grove family spoke to me and Gerhard Ramsaroop in tears about how a family member went into the Berbice Hospital emergency room for simple belly pain. On their return hours after, the family member had died. Their inquiries were met with abuse by the doctors, an immorality than can only happen in Guyana.
The second example relates to Dale Andrews of this newspaper. Dale did not collect his heart tablets one Friday morning. The next afternoon, I accompanied him to the Medical Block, but the section was closed. We went to A&E with his clinic card and explained to the doctor the situation. This female doctor was arrogant and rude. She refused to write a prescription. Another doctor did it. I was livid with her because Dale had a heart condition. I let her have my noisy vocabulary and Dale restrained me.
Suppose Dale went home and had collapsed?
The Director of Medical and Professional Services, Dr. Sheik Amir, leaves much to be desired. I honestly think he should be relieved of his post, because he is not doing a good job. As a matter of policy, he refuses to grant me interviews; as recent as last month when a pharmacist refused to dispense a prescription because she wanted to know what the diagnosis was. Prescriptions do not carry diagnoses, only the name of the drug. I have had hundreds of them in my lifetime, and I am sure you too. The Trinidadian bestiality is very much alive in Guyana.

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Death in Guyana, Death in Trinidad. So?

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