Kinsha Gillis, 19, of 4643 Rasville, Roxanne Burnham Drive, Georgetown told Stabroek News that her seven-month-old son, Jaheim Niles, received treatment after waiting first for four hours on Sunday at the facility and “more hours” yesterday when he was once again rushed there.
Gillis said when she first took the child to the hospital, he did not receive prompt medical although he began wheezing and struggling to breathe. Gillis said that he was prescribed an antibiotic after it was determined that he had a cold and an inflamed lung. He was also given oxygen and seemed to have recovered only to suffer a similar asthma attack again in the wee hours of yesterday morning.
He was rushed to nearby East La Penitence Health Centre, where the nurse-on-duty referred him to the GPH. When they arrived at the hospital and presented the slip, they were told “take a seat and wait your turn,” a distraught Gillis said.
The young mother noted that doctors administered oxygen and told her to wait outside. She, however, kept making periodic checks and observed that the child’s condition worsened after an injection was administered. She left the room and when she returned she was shocked that the child had already died; his body had been wrapped. That was shortly after noon yesterday.
Gillis said she was not allowed to identify the body, nor was she told that the child would be taken to the morgue. She called her mother and other relatives but by the time they rushed to the hospital, the baby was already in the morgue.
“It’s the way these people at the hospital do things man. They move slow, treat you bad and when there is a dead they ain’t even have the courtesy to say, ‘Girl your baby dead’…they treat you as if you are nothing there,” said an angry relative of the young woman.
According to Gillis, she made a report at the Alberttown Police Station and she was supported by family members but remained in a state of shock after giving her first comments. She wept as she was asked about the seven months she spent with the child.
She said that the infant’s father, who works in the interior, heard of the death of his son and is making preparations to travel to the city today.
A friend of the family, who works at the hospital morgue, informed the family that an autopsy will be performed on the child’s body tomorrow, this newspaper was told. “Not even that they can say? They took all the paperwork gave her nothing didn’t show her the body and can’t say PM is when?” the relative questioned.
Although the child’s family believes that not much will come out of his death, they want authorities to have the persons on duty answerable to claims of negligence and poor attitudes when dealing with patients.
