Latest update January 18th, 2025 7:00 AM
Faulty Caesarean section…GPHC is a teaching institution for Doctors and Nurses – Dr. Norton
Shadow Minister of Health for A Partnership for National Unity, Dr. George Norton, is of the view that doctors and
Dr. George Norton
nurses at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) are not facing the consequences for the mistakes they make on patients.
He said that the medical institution is more of a teaching institution for the nurses and doctors rather than one which operates in the interest of the people of this country.
Norton, who is also an Ophthalmologist at the hospital, accused the facility’s management of allowing doctors and nurses to operate on patients after ‘destroying’ another.
He made this disclosure in light of allegations made by a Mabaruma mother, Simone Hernandez that a faulty C-section has landed her 20-year-old daughter in the facility’s Intensive Care Unit.
According to reports, Denika Hernandez’s intestines were reportedly damaged after the doctor who delivered her child “went too deep” whilst suturing the incision from the Caesarean section and mistakenly involved her intestines.
This allegedly occurred on May 23, last. The 20-year-old is still hospitalised.
“All the departments at the hospital have a Head who is also a consultant and who in most cases have been around for some time, so you cannot blame the doctors or the nurses alone but also those who are in charge,” Dr. Norton said.
According to the Ophthalmologist, no doctors, regardless of how brilliant they might be, would be as competent if they do not have the experience to go with their brilliance.
“If a doctor in any department functions incompetent then the Head of that Department will be responsible for that because they must know who they are working with and what that person is capable of doing,” APNU shadow Minister stressed.
“I must admit that the GPHC is more of a teaching institution. We might not have to hold the hands of the general practitioners that work with us but it is stipulated that they must have supervision,” Dr. Norton said.
Critical: Denika Hernandez
According to the APNU shadow Minister, the situation regarding Denika Hernandez is unacceptable.
“I would want to believe that if there was supervision then the situation with Ms. Hernandez would have been avoided.”
Responding to Simone Hernandez’s allegation that no one from the hospital met with her to give her a detailed explanation of her daughter’s condition or what went wrong during the operation, Dr. Norton said that the hospital should have explained what went wrong to the family and do not allow them to speculate.
“The first thing that should have been done is you call up the family members and you try to explain to them what really happened and how things can be fixed rather than allowing them to speculate,” the Ophthalmologist explained.
It is still unclear whether an investigation regarding Hernandez’s accusations was launched but the woman claimed that the doctor has been meeting with her regularly to explain her daughter’s present condition.
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