Four-year-old’s death at GPHC…Recommendations made for four health workers to be disciplined

Apr 25, 2014 News

— mother disheartened by lengthy process

A final investigation into the death of four-year-old Jaden Mars, who died last December while a patient of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), has been completed.
This development has been confirmed by the Health Ministry’s Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Shamdeo Persaud.
According to the CMO, based on the findings of the Special Committee, which was set up to investigate the deaths of children, a recommendation was made for disciplinary action to be meted out to at least four health professionals who attended to the young child.
This publication understands that the operations of three doctors and one nurse were scrutinized by the Committee as part of the investigation. Fulfilling the recommendation of the Committee now sits squarely in the hands of the Medical and Nursing Councils, since, according to Dr Persaud, these two bodies will have the final say.

Nathalie Caseley displays photos of her son’s deteriorating condition during his hospitalisation.

However, mother of the young child, Nathalie Caseley, in an interview with this publication insisted that she is not merely prepared to accept “word of mouth about their recommendations for disciplinary action.”
“How can I trust them that indeed that will be done,” lamented the still distraught woman, who revealed that senior officials of the GPHC had informed her that “they cannot send anyone home pending the outcome of the investigation into the death of my son because they are short of staff.”
According to the woman, she is convinced that “the GPHC caused the death of my eldest and at the time, my only son, and it seems as though they are not in a hurry to try to amend the pain they have caused my family by concluding this process which seems to be going on forever.”
Jaden Mars was admitted a patient of the GPHC on December 4 last year after he fell and hit his mouth damaging his tongue in the process. The child was at his home (45 West Ruimveldt Housing Scheme, Georgetown) with his grandmother, Nancy Gittens, who first rushed him to the East La Penitence Health Centre, where a nurse there was able to control the bleeding of the wound before referring him to the GPHC for further medical attention.
At the hospital, the child was triaged, and it was ascertained that his condition was not an emergency. He was eventually attended to by a doctor who administered two 25 milligram doses of Ketamine intended to sedate him so that his tongue could be sutured.
However, since the general anaesthetic medicine was not effective in putting the child to sleep he was referred to the theatre for the needful medical care. The process should have taken about 15 minutes but it was not until one hour later that medical personnel emerged from the theatre to inform Caseley that her son’s heart had “crashed”. He remained in an unconscious state until December 10 when he died in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit.

Jaden Mars5

Caseley is therefore convinced that “by no means, at all, my son should have ended up dead for the minor injury he sustained…I feel as though I’m now being pushed around and taken for granted in my quest for justice and closure.”
According to the woman, her constant efforts to stay in contact and get straight answers from officials at both the GPHC and Ministry of Health resulted in her, on occasions, being treated in an undesirable manner.
She disclosed it was only earlier this week that she was in contact with an official of the Health Ministry who promised to provide her with an update, but has not done so to date.
Moreover, Caseley is adamant that she has been waiting far too long for official answers into the death of her son.
“In all that happened to my sweet Jaden, not an official from the Ministry of Health reached out to me,” said the heartbroken mother as she recalled an official of the hospital “practically saying that the hospital was responsible for my son’s death.”
That very official, Caseley said, had promised to, at least, take a proposal to the Ministry for her to be compensated in some way for her loss.
This recommendation, the woman said, was made during a meeting she was called to at the hospital shortly after the passing of her son. The meeting, she recounted, was attended by the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Michael Khan; Director of Medical and Professional Services, Dr Sheik Amir and his secretary as well as Member of Parliament, Reverend Kwame Gilbert.
The woman noted that while she is aware that her efforts, or that of anyone else, cannot resurrect her son, she is on a mission to ensure that the hospital learns from its past mistakes, so as to ensure that others do not suffer similarly.
“The day after my son was admitted into the ICU, I took pictures of him on the life machine to Mr Khan to let him know what was happening, but was told I cannot see him but needed to go to Dr Amir instead…I went to him (Dr Amir) and his secretary told me to leave a letter since I cannot see him like that,” recounted Caseley.
“I saw him on the (hospital’s) corridor and I reached out to him with the pictures of my son telling him I would like to understand why my son ended up this way and he shunned me and said ‘ma’am, ma’am, I’m not the doctor that dealt with your son’,” she claimed
Moreover, she is of the conviction that the hospital should put in place a functioning system to deal with the concerns of grieving family members.
A post mortem examination revealed that Jaden Mars died of Pulmonary Embolism, which is a blockage of the main artery of the lung or one of its branches by a substance that has travelled from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream. It was also determined that there was no prior damage to any of the child’s internal organs.
The woman recalled that as part of her efforts to get answers about her son’s sudden demise she had requested to see his medical records. But according to Caseley, “they gave me a jumble-up file with incorrect dates, and records of another child was even mixed up with my son’s records…I had to take the mess back for GPHC to straighten it out.”
Caseley said the records showed that her son developed respiratory problems after a decision was made to stop sedating him while he was a patient in the ICU. The doctor on call was summoned to attend to the child but his response was ‘I’m having dinner; I’ll be there when I’m done.’
“Imagine that,” Caseley reflected, as she expressed hope that her son’s death would not have been in vain.
According to the woman, who is mother to two-year-old Jada and newborn son Jonathan, she and her partner, Junior Mars, are trying to remain strong for their children, even as she added that “it is really hard to come to grips with losing a child under such circumstances”.