Cecil Sullivan

Shortly after arriving at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) yesterday, former acting Chief Magistrate Cecil Sullivan died before receiving medical attention.

Sullivan was 88.

In a statement issued last night, the hospital said that an investigation has been launched to determine the events which led to Sullivan’s death.

According to the statement, Sullivan was taken to the hospital’s East Street triage in “severe respiratory distress”.

“Based on the accounts received from staff members and bystanders, it is apparent that Mr. Sullivan was brought to the hospital’s East Street triage area in severe respiratory distress.”, the statement said.

“Upon arriving at the triage facility, a public security officer accompanied Mr. Sullivan’s relative into the triage area and alerted the medical staff who upon examination found Mr. Sullivan unresponsive,” it added.

However, during a telephone interview with Stabroek News last night, Sullivan’s step-daughter, Nirmala Singh said that he passed away in a vehicle while she was trying to find a porter and a wheelchair to take him into the hospital.

Singh explained that Sullivan  tested positive for the  novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) last Monday after he started to experience a fever.

From then, she said, he was in home isolation.

During the period, she said her mother had to call the COVID-19 hotline twice since Sullivan experienced difficulty breathing and had severe fever from time to time. “My mother called the COVID hotline two time and she tell them and they said to give him the Panadol and the Vitamin C,” Singh said.

Singh, who lives in Essequibo said she travelled to Georgetown yesterday. “When I come, I see he, like he was breathing kinda funny,” she said.

It was at this point that a decision was made to take him to the hospital. “So she (Sullivan wife) called COVID hotline. ….After I come and I see he like that, I say call and let we carry him. So when she called, she told them what happen….They said we could bring him to the hospital at East Street,” Singh further related.

The family had the option of calling an ambulance but Singh said they took Sullivan to the hospital on their own.

Upon arrival at the hospital, she added that Sullivan was unable to receive medical attention immediately. “When we reach there (hospital) now………When we drive in, I think she (security) come out with a paper and they said it is COVID to drive out back and go to the side,” she said.

According to Singh, she closed the gate and followed the guard’s instruction. “When we drive out back, we go to the side and she went in with the paper and he was in the car. So they tell me to go and get a wheelchair,” she added.

Singh said she proceeded to locate a wheelchair to transport her father into the hospital but she could not locate a porter.

“I didn’t see no porter, so I ask the security. They said to go and search for a porter. So I went to the back at the Emergency. I didn’t see any porter. I come back and I tell she. She said to go back to the back. And I went back and I find out and they said somebody with a blue clothes. But I ain’t see nobody. And by time I was coming out back, they said he died,” Singh recalled.

“…I tell the security. I said that how you tell me go and look for a porter now the man die in the car,” she said.

Singh believed if Sullivan was at least examined by medical staff after arriving at the hospital, they would have been able to determine that he was in need of immediate medical attention.

“I think when we go and we said it’s a COVID patient, I think somebody should have come out and see if the person need the attention right away or if was somebody who could have wait. Maybe if they had come out and see he in the condition….we wait for about 15 minutes to get a wheelchair…He didn’t get the attention he needed,” Singh said.

Sullivan was not fully vaccinated.

According to Singh, he received his first dose of the Sputnik V vaccine in May and was due for the second dose.

However, she said on two two occasion, he went to get his second vaccine but was unable to since it was not available. “…..Every time they go, it finish. They went two time and by time they went, they said that it finish,” she said.