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Region Five officials say octogenarian was hysterical

Jul 08, 2014 News

… Needed to be restrained

Region Five health care officials have dismissed claims by a West Berbice family that an 86- year- old woman was physically abused by two nurses at the Fort Wellington Hospital.
Relatives of Julia Melville of Lot 289, Number 8 Village, West Coast Berbice claimed that the woman’s death was as a result of her being hit in the head and face by two nurses at the Fort Wellington Hospital after being admitted two Tuesdays ago with high blood pressure.
During the visit Thursday morning, the family members said that they noticed the entire face of the woman was swollen. “The head was swollen on the right side and also the face, so we touched her and right away we noticed that she suffered a stroke, because [of] the way she was speaking,” said the woman’s daughter Oswyn.
“She kept telling us, ‘they ill- treated me last night—they beat me—and I did calling for police, for help, for murder. They really ill-treat me. The porter boy from Hopetown and them two nurses, them ain’t treat me good—I want come out.’”
However, the acting Regional Health Officer (RHO) of Region Five, Dr. Alexander Sinclair refuted all of the allegations. He said that around 03:00 hrs on Wednesday, the patient had to be restrained since she was behaving erratically and violently.
“The patient was restrained but the restraint was removed after observation that there were marks from where the restraint was,” he added.
“She was behaving erratic and shouting ‘murder’ and ‘rape’ and trying to come off the bed. She was taking drip and all of that so they had to restrain her,” Dr. Alexander stated.
Region Five Councilor, Ms. Carol Smith Joseph, who is also familiar with the incident and Melville’s behaviour, said, “[Melville] kept talking a set of madness and shouting for murder and so on.”
“Nobody ever hit the patient. After the bandage was released, she tried on several occasions to get up and then nurses told her to lie down. The rails that were on the bed came off and the patient dropped to the ground. The nurses called the porter to assist her to get the patient back on the bed.” Melville was then stabilized.
Joseph said that around 05:30 that morning, the woman’s relatives visited and, “were promptly informed by the nurses what had happened.”  “As the day progressed, Dr. Sinclair visited the patient, ordered further treatment and the patient continued to rest comfortably,” she added.
Joseph added that the woman’s daughter visited the doctor and “he advised her (she wanted to remove her mother) he advised her to wait until 16:00 hrs, that he was monitoring her.” But the doctor stated that the daughter was upset about that.
“At 12:30hrs she stormed in and removed the mother against the doctor’s advice. She refused to sign the ‘refusal to take treatment paper’ and stormed out with her mom. At no time at all did the doctor send away the patient unconscious.”
Meville died later that night at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC), sending the family berserk about the treatment they believed their relative received at Fort Wellington.
“The patient was in an advanced state of senility and was screaming for ‘murder’ and ‘rape’ all the time …at no time at all was this woman unconscious. We can boast about proper health care in Region Five. When we cannot handle a case here, either that person is transferred to GPHC or New Amsterdam Hospital,” Joseph added.
She added that Dr. Subhan was the doctor on- call during the night of the incident, and the patient was being monitored by Dr. Sinclair who is the Doctor in Charge and acting Regional Health Officer.
(Leon Suseran)

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