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Post kidney transplant patients voice concern over ‘revocation’ of isolated space at GPHC–in wake of suspected infection-related death
Although it isn’t unusual for a patient to die while undergoing medical care, some people are of the firm belief that measures should always be in place
Kiran Haridyal was forced to seek care at a private hospital for fear of being exposed to infections at the GPHC
to avoid, as far as possible, a renal failure patient dying from an infection while hospitalised.
This notion was recently amplified by a few post kidney transplant patients who have been receiving care at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation [GPHC].
Their concerns were recently amplified after a fellow post transplant patient succumbed at the premier public health institution, reportedly due to an infection. But according to the surviving patients, this should never be the case since they were long informed that the hospital administration had designated two rooms for the admission of post transplant patients, who may need to be hospitalised for some reason, owing to their susceptibility to infections.
But the patients told this publication that they recently learnt that the hospital has been utilising the dedicated rooms for their care of other patients.
They said this is not only unorthodox but life-threatening to the post transplant patients.
“We are heavily drugged when transplanted and so we are always in danger of being infected from regular healthy persons much less sick people in a hospital,” said Henry Brandon, one post-transplant patient.
But even ahead of the recent death, the patients claimed they had raised concerns about moves to share their admission rooms with other patients.
This issue came to the fore recently when post transplant patient, Kiran Haridyal, developed some complications and was rushed to the GPHC for care. However, when it was discovered that he would have been exposed to other patients, since the dedicated rooms were not available, he opted to seek care at a privately operated hospital instead.
Haridyal, like the other surviving patients, are convinced that he too could have succumbed to his complications had he not been financially able to seek care at the private institution.
“They are not taking this thing seriously; they are not taking it seriously at all. There is only so much the transplant surgeon can do for us,” said Brandon.
His sentiments were echoed by Haridyal who revealed that he needed to be hospitalised after he began feeling unwell about a month ago.
“I was having some stomach problems…so I went to the public hospital and called Dr. Kishore [Persaud – the transplant surgeon]…They were trying to find space for me in the hospital but all of the rooms were occupied.
“Even if they had gotten the patients out of the room, the room still wouldn’t have been sanitised enough…so instead of putting my life in danger I decided to go private,” said Haridyal.
In an invited comment to this publication on the accommodation dilemma of the post transplant patients, a senior official of the hospital said that “this is a challenge that we cannot avoid. We always have people coming in for care and we cannot turn people away so space is likely to be always limited.”
The official shared that the hospital is constantly advocating for families to remove their relatives who have been abandoned, sometimes for years, at the public health institution.
“If families remove abandoned patients, we will have more space for those who really need it,” the official added.
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