The death last month of 22-year-old mother, Somatie Singh, at the Georgetown Public Hospital, prompted an investigation by the hospital, a report on which was later forwarded to the Medical Council of Guyana (MCG) for review. Following the MCG review, the hospital announced via the Government Information Agency (GINA) that the two nursing staff at the centre of the investigation would be sent “warning” letters and that their performance would now be closely monitored and evaluated in the future.

What a “warning” letter means and what exactly they were warned over should be spelt out to the public.

The outcome of the investigation has upset the family which felt that sterner action should have been taken given the treatment that their daughter received at the hospital that fateful day. The tragedy was further compounded by the death of her newborn child shortly after her passing.

Following the release of the GINA statement, Somatie’s father Ram Sankar raised several commonsense questions in an interview with Stabroek News which the Georgetown Public Hospital would do well to answer publicly.

After the death of the woman, it had been divulged by the hospital that Somatie suffered from a serious heart ailment - pulmonary hypertension. The hospital’s Director of Medical and Professional Services, Dr Madan Rambarran had said the ailment “we believe is not curable except probably by some heart and lung transplant. The clinical opinion was that her prognosis was always weak”. The disclosure of her medical condition showed a willingness on the part of the hospital to lay the facts of the case in the public domain so there should be no difficulty in providing additional information.

On admission and following the diagnosis of her condition, was Somatie Singh told about it and its severity? Was her family told about it? Her father says no. After diagnosis was there any other course of treatment she could have been placed on given her condition? Should she have been in intensive care rather than in an open ward which later led to the refusal of a bedpan? Why was her care that day entrusted to a nursing assistant and a midwife rather than more experienced staff? Were the nursing staff notified that Somatie Singh had a serious condition which could lead to further complications with deadly consequences? If not, why not? If the nursing staff was notified what explains the crude manner in which they behaved when she was in excruciating pain and pleaded for a bedpan? What are the regulations governing the use of bedpans in open wards and should they be refused even in clearly extenuating circumstances? Did the removal of the oxygen mask during the attempt to walk her to the toilet worsen her plight and did the nursing staff act appropriately while taking her to the toilet?

In view of the public interest in this matter and the details that have been ventilated in the press, the level of information that has emanated from the Georgetown Hospital on the investigation is inadequate. It has fuelled the view that the two nursing staff have gotten off lightly judged against the account of family members that fateful day.

In the words of her father: “Dem telling me that is just a little error dem nurses mek, but dem ent know that the day meh watch how deh treat me daughter. Is like watching somebody taking a cow to the slaughter house to kill it.” Her mother described the nursing assistant’s reaction when Somatie started to cry out in pain and said she couldn’t walk to the toilet. “She tell me baby how she playing tricks and how she could very well walk because she motha gat a heart problem so she know. But me baby couldn’t walk, she tek off the oxygen mask and almost pull me baby to the floor so she could walk.” This is certainly not conventional or acceptable treatment in a hospital and the public has a right to know if these things happened the way as related by the family and if a “warning” letter is the appropriate reprimand in this case.

It would be interesting to hear from the nursing association what its position is on the type of treatment that was meted out to Somatie Singh and whether it agrees with the findings of the hospital investigation. As it stands there is a great disparity between the recommendation of the investigation and the public’s expectation based on the generally unchallenged reports in the media of Somatie Singh’s treatment.

The Georgetown Hospital undertakes a Herculean task each day caring for the health of the nation and has won praise for its work particularly during emergencies and industrial unrest. From time to time, however, there are cases like Somatie Singh’s which cause great public unease and which require the public hospital to do a better job of explaining and defending its performance.