By Mia Anthony
An investigation has commenced into what occurred in the wee hours of Tuesday when former national power lifter, Rawndel Clementson died at the Diamond Diagnostic Centre according to a source at the facility.
In a telephone interview with Stabroek News yesterday, Clementson’s wife, Oslyn Clementson, told this newspaper of callous treatment at the facility in her desperate attempt to get some help that could have possibly saved her husband’s life.
She recounted that on Tuesday around 2 am she was awakened by her husband who complained of having heart palpitations. “He said his heart was beating fast and he asked me to mix him some vitamin C.” According to Oslyn, this practice was nothing strange as she would usually give him this mixture upon his request and he would sit for 15 minutes on the bed and his heart rate would return to normal.
However, this time the vitamin mix did not slow his heart rate so they proceeded to test his pressure at home. Rawndel then requested to be taken to hospital.
According to Oslyn, due to the negative reports about the Diamond Diagnostic Centre, she tried to dissuade her husband from going to there to seek medical attention but since it was the closest one to where they live she reluctantly agreed and took him anyway.
On his arrival at the hospital Rawndel requested an oxygen mask relating that he was unable to breathe properly and was feeling dizzy.
“They told him to sit and wait, I asked them to come and look at him,” Oslyn said. She was subsequently informed that there was a procedure in place for patients. The woman recalled that less than two minutes later Rawndel fell onto the hospital floor. She said she raised an alarm for the nurses to come and assist her with lifting him back into the chair but no one responded.
“They refused to lift him saying that he has too much body weight and that they couldn’t lift him,” Oslyn related when asked about what was done after he fell. “There was a strong young doctor there and other nurses, I even asked the security guard [but] no one came to assist me.”
Her son arrived soon after and she again asked for some assistance from a nurse in lifting her husband with the help of her son and was told by the nurse “.. .your son can lift him.”
Her daughter then arrived and the taxi driver who she had travelled with assisted them in lifting her husband off the floor.
After they placed him on a bed with the assistance of the taxi driver, approximately 20 minutes later they were informed by a nurse that there was no pulse and that they didn’t want to try using the Automated External Defibrillator (AED) to jumpstart his heart.
“Y’all try something more, I pleaded with them. My daughter who is also a trained medical professional tried doing CPR but that didn’t work and they didn’t even try assisting her. She even asked them for a pulse reading [and] they ignored her,” the distraught wife stated as she recalled what happened that morning.
Stabroek News visited the Diamond hospital and was made aware that an investigation is underway. This was according to an official of the hospital who preferred to remain anonymous. Several attempts at getting a response from the Ministry of Health on the matter proved futile with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health being reported as being in meetings.
The Diamond Hospital was re-commissioned in April 2021 by the Ministry of Health to fully serve residents living on the East Bank Demerara after over $200 million in upgrades undertaken under the ‘Smart Health Care Facilities in the Caribbean’ project.
