Stalled post mortem attributed to ‘absconded’ Cuban pathologist
A familiar sight at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) mortuary yesterday morning was the crowd.
Nazmoon Martindale brought his sister’s body all the way from Berbice
Several people flocked the facility to await post mortem examinations to be conducted on their dead relatives.
Many persons were upset when they were told that the post mortem could not be conducted on their relatives because of the number of cases to be dealt with.
Post mortem examinations are done at the hospital on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. However, Monday was a holiday and this contributed to the back up of cases, the hospital said.
Chief Executive Officer of the health facility, Michael Khan, said that so far, there is only one doctor on duty to conduct post mortem and it is impossible that he could conduct all the backed up PMs.
He explained that the problem was compounded when the Cuban Pathologist absconded to the United States in September. He said that the Cuban doctor was dealing particularly with hospital deaths and since her departure, those cases along with others are being conducted by Pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh.
Dr. Singh also has to be present in the High Court to give evidence in trials on the post mortem examinations he would have previously performed, Khan said. The CEO explained that the situation is one where the doctor is unable to do all PMEs on a given day because of the number of cases.
Kaieteur News understands that some 30 examinations were scheduled for yesterday, but only police cases, which included murders, were being conducted. One person waiting to have a post mortem conducted on his relative said that his family was told to return to the morgue tomorrow.
He said that the relatives had already prepared to have the relative buried today and now further finances have to be spent.
This was the story of several other persons who flocked the hospital morgue. At least two persons were waiting post mortem on their babies. Hazel Smith told Kaieteur News that her granddaughter was born at a private hospital last Saturday, but died on Sunday.
Her family believes that the hospital is at fault since there was difficulty during the delivery, but adequate care was not given to the baby to ensure that the child was healthy. The grandmother said that the family was hoping that the PM would have been conducted in a timely manner to ascertain the cause of the baby’s death. They were quite upset since they claimed that funeral arrangements were already being made for the baby, but now those have to be pushed back.
Several persons stood in hope to have the autopsy on their relatives.
Nazmoon Martindale said that he travelled with his sister’s body all the way from Berbice to have the PME conducted at GPHC but was told that no PMEs were being performed until Friday. He said he had to hire a hearse in Ithaca, West Berbice to travel to Georgetown. His relative was also scheduled to be buried today, but that will not happen, he stated.
Khan had told the newspaper that the pathologist at Berbice, Vivikenan Brijmohan is currently on leave.
The absence of the Cuban pathologist has severely affected the completion of Post Mortem examinations at the hospital when the woman left last month. It was reported that the hospital administration was forced to put measures in place to ensure that post mortem were conducted in a timely manner.
Guyana currently has three qualified pathologists and was gaining much needed support from the Cuban Pathologist. Dr. Nehaul Singh usually performs his duty across the country.