Mentally ill patient still in police custody over GPHC fire

The mentally ill patient who reportedly started Wednesday’s fire in the Georgetown Public Hospital’s Male Psychiatric Ward is still in police custody and efforts are being made to have him committed to the mental hospital in Berbice.

Police sources had told Stabroek News that initial investigations revealed that the man, Leonard Nelson, had reportedly set alight a mattress before fleeing the building. The fire was allegedly set during a fight between Nelson and another patient, who has since been sent to the Berbice facility.
His mother, Abiola, during an interview with this newspaper, said yesterday that following the incident and his subsequent incarceration she went to the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court with the intention of securing an order to have him institutionalized at the Berbice facility.
The woman said that the magistrate however has asked to see the 20-year-old man so that she can interact with him to ensure that it  would be the right place for him. This would be done sometime next week.

In the meantime the man who began having mental problems two months ago remains at the East Ruimveldt Outpost and his mother has expressed concerns over him not being treated for his condition.

“Right now he in there and ain’t getting treatment for his sickness. He got to get it… He get lash in he head when the police beat he up and they ain’t even carry him to get treatment. It was bleeding but it stop,” the woman said.

Abiola told this newspaper that she visited her son at the outpost yesterday morning and he was crying and saying that he was being blamed for the fire. The woman said that he would speak perfectly normal for a short while and  he also told her that when the fire started he ran out of the building and did not put any of the mattresses into the conflagration.

The woman said that she was told that her son and another patient were fighting in the ward when there was some water throwing. She added that the security guards ran in and later went to summon help. It was during this that the fire was started and according to Abiola the other patient was behind it.
Further, she said,  after the fire started the inmates started throwing mattresses into the fire after which all the patients ran out of the building.
Abiola told this newspaper that her son was seen running near Bourda Market and a security guard suspecting that he was a thief, raised an alarm. She said that a man tripped down her son and the guards subsequently arrived and started to beat him. Police came shortly after and took him to the Alberttown Police Station before transporting him to the Outpost.

Slackness

According to the woman many procedures governing the Psychiatric Wards have been breached and this played a part in the incident on Wednesday.
She told this newspaper that the guard who is posted by the staircase does not question and inspect the things that persons are taking to the patients.
“That guard suppose to check people’s food but they don’t do that. People would walk in just so and give them patient things. Nobody checks them. Procedures are not followed and that is real slackness,” she said, adding that a lone female is responsible for the ward.

“One female nurse cannot work with male patients. It is a fine, puny nurse and I commend her for her courage because when my son attempted to hang himself, it was she who ran (to help),” the woman stressed before pointing out that the nurse even locked herself in the ward as she was tending to her son. Added to this, she said, the doctors took a long time to come and so  the nurse was in danger.

Speaking on his mental condition, Abiola said that that about two months ago he came home and was acting strangely. Nelson had been in and out of the Observation Ward during the last month and according to his mother he attempted to hang himself twice.
According to her, he used a jersey and then a sheet which was used to strap another patient to his bed. She said that sheets, pillow cases, shoe laces, belts or anything that they could use to hang or injure themselves with are not allowed in the ward.

She also noted that late last month a patient with a piece of a mop stick beat her son causing injuries about his body. The hospital had denied this.
Following that incident she was told by the doctor to take him home but she was forced to return to the hospital after he began spitting blood.
Abiola told Stabroek News that the patient who  had inflicted the injuries was strapped to a bed and given an injection. According to her, that man was discharged from the ward several days before the fire.

The fire which was spotted shortly before 6 am completely destroyed the buildings housing the Psychiatric Wards (male and female), the Medical Outpatient Department and the Patient Care Assistant teaching facility
All the psychiatric patients and staff escaped unhurt but according to reports a member of the internal security and a matron were injured during separate encounters with patients.

The Maternity Ward although not threatened by the flames was evacuated as a security precaution.
In the midst of the chaos several of the patients were seen wandering around in the crowd but some were later found and taken to the Psychiatric Clinic.
Chief Executive Officer of the hospital, Michael Khan had told the media that following the death of Natasha Vieira who was allegedly killed by another patient in the ward several weeks ago, security guards were placed inside.

He said that the information he received was that there was an altercation in the male ward but by the time the guards could have secured assistance a patient had set a mattress on fire.