My cousin died on Mash Day at Woodlands without doctor attendance

Feb 25, 2015 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I got the call from his wife about 3.45 p.m. that my cousin was deteriorating and had to be transferred to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). He was a patient at Woodlands Hospital.
We arrived at the Hospital around 4.15 p.m., because of delays on the road due to Mash celebrations. Minutes later, Islamic scholar of the CIOG, Sheik Moen ul-Hack arrived. We were told by the nurses that his condition worsened badly and the attendant doctor at the Emergency Department ordered his transfer to ICU.
Both the Sheik and I asked to see the doctor for the ICU, but were told that there was none. The Sheik tried to call doctors he knew who work at Woodlands, while I went in search of other doctors at the hospital. Sheik Moen ul-Hack is the priest who attends to my cousin’s family and who did the funeral rites at the CIOG last week for my cousin’s brother. The two brothers died six days apart.
I was informed that there was only one doctor on duty and he was based at the Emergency Wing. I was told his name was Dr. Khan. I went to speak to Dr. Khan to ascertain the situation with my cousin. There were three patients waiting while the doctor was in a room treating another. I was instructed to wait. I went back to Sheik ul-Hack to find out if he had made contact with any of the other Woodlands doctors who could come to the ICU. Sheik ul-Hack said he didn’t get communication with them.
Let me make it clear for readers to note; at 4.15 p.m. at the Woodlands Hospital there was only one doctor at work in the entire hospital. A prominent Guyanese, Sheik Moen ul-Hack, was with me all this time, and he can testify to that fact. I can say unambiguously that Sheik ul-Hack agreed with me when I told him this was unacceptable.
At 5.30 p.m., I went back to Emergency to see Dr. Khan. By this time there were six patients and Dr. Khan was treating one of them. It was clear to me that he couldn’t leave his patient to talk to me, and I accepted that gracefully. I asked the nurses who at that particular moment was the person with authority at Woodlands. I was told it was Dr. Khan and a matron. The matron had jurisdiction over the entire staff. I went to see her. She told me that Dr. Khan transferred my cousin to the ICU and they were awaiting other doctors. I went again to see Dr. Khan, but again the nurses said he was attending to emergency patients. At 6 p.m., Sheik ul-Hack went into the ICU room to pray for my cousin.
This was two hours after the arrival of the Sheik and I at the hospital. At 6.15, the Sheik reported to me that he went into the room and the nurses were beating the chest of my cousin to revive him. The Sheik looked at me, and I knew my cousin was dying. I went immediately to Emergency, but the doctor was preoccupied. My cousin died twenty minutes after. Two and a half hours after Sheik Moen ul-Hack and I went to the ICU, there was never a doctor who went to the ICU to see my cousin. He died without seeing a doctor in the ICU.
Let me state in pellucid terms, on February 23 when Sheik ul-Hack and I were at the Woodlands Hospital there was only one doctor manning that entire hospital, even though it has an ICU section with patients. After Dr. Khan transferred my cousin to the ICU, there was no doctor in the ICU to assess my cousin’s situation.
After his death, it was time to remove the body. The Sheik looked agitated because of some bureaucratic procedure which he said he had no experience with and suggested I deal with it. I was told I had to clear the bill before the parlour could remove the body. Time was going and the bill could not be tabulated.
I told the hospital that the bill will not be a problem. They agreed and said that the hospital knows the Sheik well. The Sheik then summoned the parlour. Life is hard. I have to pay a huge bill at a hospital that failed to get a doctor to see my cousin whose condition was rapidly deteriorating in the ICU.
I will pay the bill but I am suing Woodland’s and I will do so even if I have to creep to the courts to testify. I have a witness who is an eminent Guyanese. I am writing to the Medical Council. I ask readers which hospital in the world would have only one doctor on duty?

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My cousin died on Mash Day at Woodlands without doctor attendance

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