Shot cop claims GPHC could have made him lose his foot

Apr 11, 2014 News

– Hospital mulls probe

Doctors attached to a private hospital are desperately trying to save at least the calcaneus, also called the heel bone, of a 23-year-old policeman who was accidently shot by a Corporal on March 20, last at Rabbit Walk, Eve Leary.
Samuel Elvis, a father of one, of Lot 4 Bella Dam, Pouderoyen, West Bank Demerara (WBD) was shot to the right upper thigh. He underwent surgery at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) to remove the bullet.

Samuel Elvis

As days went by, Elvis said that he noticed his toes started to get dark.
“I told the doctor and he said that I need to move, move my knee and I started doing that.”
According to Elvis, whenever the doctors at the hospital “run the ward,” a doctor would normally go to him and ask about the injured leg.
“Every time they asked, I would tell them that my toes getting dark and they wouldn’t say or do anything.”
“I was a patient there and at no time the doctors explained to me what was happening, until one day when one of them came to me and said that they will have to remove my ankle,” Elvis claimed.
He said that after listening to what the doctor had to say, he got angry.
“I told them when I couldn’t move one of my toes and they didn’t do anything. I did the same when I couldn’t feel on two toes and they still didn’t do anything, but they wanted to remove my ankle.”
Knowing that life would become difficult for him with such action, the Tactical Service Unit (TSU) rank left the GPHC and got himself admitted to a private hospital.
There he was informed that a “faulty” operation was “…the reason for the decaying of my foot. When I did the ultrasound, the guy said that the surgery I did at GPHC was messed up. The doctor here (private hospital) said that he will try to save my heel, but he can’t save my toes. He said that my toes’ cells are dying slowly”.
When contacted, a senior official at the GPHC said that he will have to review the Elvis’ chart before an investigation is launched.
Meanwhile, Elvis recounted the shooting incident.
“Sometime after 01:00 hrs on March 20 (last), we received a call that a lost Guyana Defence Force (GDF)’s weapon was found so we had to go uplift it, which we did. At the base, we were waiting to lodge it when the Corporal picked up the weapon and cranked it,” the TSU rank recalled.
He added that the gun went off and he was injured.