Amanda Lam, one of the survivors of last Friday’s fatal Houston collision, says she was forced to seek medical attention at a private hospital after the public hospital that she was referred to could not treat her injuries.
Lam on Tuesday visited the West Demerara Regional Hospital as she was advised by a doctor upon her discharge from the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), where she was admitted after the accident on Friday.
However, Lam said the doctor at the West Demerara Hospital told her that there was nothing he could do to help her because there was no specialist to deal with the fractures to her jaw.
She was then referred to the Cheddi Jagan Dental School, were she was told that she would have to wait until October or November for treatment.
Lam, who was in pain, said that she was also told that if she wanted medical attention sooner, she would need to seek it at a private institution.
Since she didn’t have the money to pay private doctors, Lam said that her husband’s relatives supplied $300,000 to fix her jaw.
Afterward, Lam, although happy that she was on the road to recovery, remained in tremendous pain.
Lam said she would be unable to eat solid food for the next 42 days after her mouth was wired to fix the fractures. She said that she can only drink from a straw.
She added that the doctors at the private institution told her that if she had received treatment earlier then there would have been less discomfort.
Meanwhile, her son, Christopher Naipaul, 16, remained admitted at the Georgetown Public Hospital as doctors were unable to find the piece of broken glass which punctured a section of his windpipe, Lam said.
The doctors at the GPH have also advised the family to have a scan done at a private institution to help find the broken glass, Lam added, while noting that the family was told by a doctor that Naipaul could lose his life if “bubbles” coming from the punctured windpipe reach his lungs.
With additional support from relatives, Lam is hoping to have Naipaul obtain the scan requested by the doctor at GPH from a private hospital.
Adding to Lam’s distress is the fact that she is out of money and unable to do her business after all her capital was stolen during the accident.
In addition, the mother said that she has a six-month-old baby.
Last Friday’s accident claimed the life of the 81-year-old Daphne Layne.
The hire car in which Layne, Lam and Naipaul were passengers was rammed by a Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) minibus. The driver of the car was charged and placed on $1M bail.
Lam said that the police have not yet approached her for a statement.
