Death of four-year-old at GPHC…CEO
withdraws statements about concluded
probe
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) has retracted statements he made last Friday in relation to the conclusion of an investigation in the death of four-year-old, Jaden Mars, at the nation’s premier health institution early last month.
GPHC’s CEO, Michael Khan
Khan’s statements were forthcoming during a press conference where he told media operatives that not only was the investigation into the death of the child concluded, but that no one was found culpable. In fact the CEO was quoted as saying that “the investigation has been completed” and “no one was blamed.”
“We have this habit of looking for people’s head. We must not look at that; we have to examine all sides,” Khan told the media operatives who subsequently reported on his comments.
However, Khan, during an interview with this publication yesterday, disclosed that his comments were in fact not completed, as he should have instead informed the media operatives that the investigation was only partially completed.
“When I said that no one has been held culpable, I really should have said that the investigation did not pinpoint anyone in a sense, because all the investigation was supposed to do, so far, was to look at the procedures that took place…What I really meant to say is that the investigation is completed in one aspect, but there is a continuation,” the CEO explained.
Khan disclosed that the investigation is very much ongoing and is currently gaining the attention of an Expert Committee. He noted the Committee was in fact established especially to investigate deaths of children between the ages of zero and five.
The Committee, according to Khan, met on Monday and they are expected to meet again today as they are not yet satisfied with the findings thus far.
According to him, the Committee, as part of its continuing investigation, is slated to meet with three medical personnel of the GPHC who would have played critical roles in attending to Jaden Mars.
Mars, who was at the time of his death a pupil of the Ascension Nursery School, died nearly one week after being admitted a patient at the GPHC to have his tongue sutured.
Dead: Jaden Mars
On December 4 last, the child accidentally fell and hit his chin on a five-gallon bucket while at his West Ruimveldt home. The impact resulted in his teeth damaging his tongue thereby causing it to bleed profusely. At the time the child was at home with his grandmother, Nancy Gittens, who rushed him to the East La Penitence Health Centre where his wound was attended to in order to stop the bleeding.
Mars was however referred to the GPHC to have his wound, which was deemed “not life threatening”, sutured. At the GPHC, he was reportedly administered two 25 milligrams doses of Ketamine, intended to sedate him, so as to allow the attending doctor to suture his wound.
And since the medication administered was rendered ineffective, a decision was made to take the child to the hospital’s theatre to have the wound sutured under controlled medication. However, by the time officials had finished attending to Mars he had slipped into a coma and died days later.
The child’s mother, Nathalie Caseley, in an invited comment yesterday told this publication that she has been “doing the professional thing” to allow the hospital to conduct a thorough investigation into her child’s death. As such she noted that it was rather disappointing to see reports in the media, rather than hear from officials at the hospital, that the investigation was completed and no one was culpable.
This publication understands that Khan has since met with Caseley and has apologised for the premature disclosure and assured her that investigations are continuing.
A source close to the operation of the hospital has also reliably informed this publication that medical personnel who attended to the child in the theatre could be held culpable since the child was not attached to a medical monitor, while there, to ensure his condition was stable