Dear Editor,
On behalf of my family I wish to thank your newspaper for covering the illness that led to the death of my husband, Calvin Charlie, who was 32 years old, and my 63-year-old mother-in-law, Helena Charlie.
Contrary to what Guyana Times of July 8 reported medical personnel as saying, my husband did not delay in seeking medical attention. My husband became ill at 2 am on Friday morning; he arrived at the Kumaka District Hospital at 4.30 am. We did not delay. He received the first injection and medical attention from the (CHW) at the Kumaka District Hospital at exactly 5.15 am. At around 7 am he was very weak and staggering to and from the toilet; at 8 am he became so weak that he could no longer walk. At this time IV (saline) was administered to him by the CHW. As the day went by, the symptoms of vomiting and diarrhoea did not cease, and he began complaining of pain all over his body with increasingly intense pain in the chest and back.
At about 1 pm on Friday, he became blind and deaf; he repeatedly requested water, but the medical personnel told us to give him about 150 ml of water. On Saturday night he became weaker and restless and was unable to sleep, despite his weakness. At 1 am on Sunday all the lights in the hospital went off and we were left in the dark without a candle or any light.
On Sunday morning his nails, palms of hands, the bottom of his feet, his gums and the area around his eyes were of a highly visible dark colour.
At about 6 am Sunday morning he received his first visit from the Medex, who was said to have been sick with diarrhoea. He became increasingly weak during the day Sunday and during Sunday night.
On Monday morning my husband seemed to have poor hope of recovery, and at about 11am preparations for a referral to the Suddie Hospital began. We left Kumaka, Santa-Rosa village at about 1 pm, and we arrived at the Oscar Joseph Hospital at Charity accompanied by 2 nurses between 2.30 pm and 3 pm. His breathing had become irregular and oxygen was administered at the hospital. An ambulance was sent for to take him to Suddie; he was placed in the ambulance without the support of the needed oxygen because although the ambulance was equipped with an oxygen tank it was found to be empty. My husband arrived at 4.45 pm.
I am 27 years old and I have practised personal hygiene in the preparation of food and drinks for my family. This is the first time that my family has suffered such an attack of vomiting and diarrhoea. I seek to blame no one for the death of my husband, but would like to call for an investigation into his death since I would not wish for other women and children to suffer the same fate as me and my five children and the unborn child in my womb.
The medical reason for his death was given as dehydration, and I do not think that in this day and age anyone who sought medical attention quickly and had lain in a hospital bed for four days should die of dehydration. Who will support me, my five children and my unborn?
He was on IV all the time for the four days, so how could he die of dehydration?
Yours faithfully,
Nicola Shahabadeen
