| …nurse sent on leave pending investigationAn explanation offered by the nurse who attended to 15-year-old Shemar Miggins shortly before his death at the West Demerara Regional Hospital last Saturday has been described as “very strange” by Minister of Health, Dr Bheri Ramsaran.The Minister’s remark was made yesterday when he addressed an emergency press conference at his Ministry’s Brickdam, Georgetown, boardroom.Health Minister Dr Bheri Ramsaran is flanked by Chief Medical Officer, Dr Shamdeo Persaud, (at right) and Permanent Secretary Leslie Codogan.Miggins, according to the Minister, died at the Regional Hospital under what he described as “controversial circumstances” after being admitted a patient there a few days earlier. Emphasising that the distressing outcome was in fact preventable, the Minister noted that the lad was hospitalised “for a few days for a relatively simple thing. He had an abscess to the foot caused apparently by a fish bone puncture wound.”Based on reports premised on preliminary investigations by Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Shamdeo Persaud, the young man was recovering well when an unfortunate turn of events led to his demise.Minister Ramsaran in the presence of the CMO and the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary,NFL Jerseys Sale, Leslie Cadogan, said that based on initial reports a nurse who was administering drugs during a routine process gave the patient a drug which should have been taken orally. Reports are that the medication was being administered in a syringe instead of a medicine cup.According to reports out of the hospital, there were no cups in the ward for oral medication.The teen, the Minister explained, was at the time on intravenous medication. “According to the nurse she gave him the oral suspension and he instead of drinking it, when she turned her back to deal with other patients, administered it via the IV line.”“This is a very strange explanation and that is why it prompted an extremely quick response from the Ministry of Health,” said an evidently concerned Minister Ramsaran who informed that an investigation was launched almost instantaneously.He noted, too, that the CMO will facilitate a more detailed investigation which will be made public as soon as possible.It is expected that the investigation will be completed within days, as according to Dr Persaud, “we are already quite clear with what happened…we just need finalisation of written reports so in another few days it will be sent to the Nursing Council for pronouncement.”The Guyana Nursing Council which is tasked with regulating the country’s nurses will make the final decision as it relates to the attending nurse’s fate, according to Dr Persaud. “As soon as we conclude this aspect of the investigation all those bits of information…evidence and reports and so on will be sent to the Council.”Since the incident the nurse who has been in the profession for about eight years has been sent on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, said Dr Persaud.Shemar Miggins the day he was admitted to the hospital.The incident, he noted, will be brought to the attention of the entire nursing fraternity with a view to identifying where procedures, if at all, were not followed.He, however, sought to highlight yesterday that a review of all documents pertaining to the patient reflected that the medical management aspect was undertaken in the correct way as were the prescriptions which were all written up in a timely manner. He noted that there are indications that there might have been a breach in the protocol for administering medicines “so that is where the investigation will be focused.”Even as he sought to empathise with the grieving family, Minister Ramsaran underscored that “losing a patient in this manner is not only painful for the family but you must understand it is also painful for the staff members involved…There are no winners in this situation.”According to him there are reports that desperate efforts were made to resurrect the teenager but all such attempts failed. A Post Mortem examination conducted by pathologist Vivekanand Brijmohan on the lad yesterday revealed that he died from asphyxiation caused by food in the lungs.According to Minister Ramsaran it is “extremely disappointing” that something of this nature occurred at a facility which has been the recipient of significant investments over the past two years.However he noted that even as investigations continue into the dilemma, moves will be made to look at other aspects of the functioning of the hospital so that “out of this crisis we can get an opportunity for change and improvement.” |
