Woman says hospital failed to tell her about bullet in son’s body
- pleads for medical report to take him overseas
Failure to receive crucial information about her injured son has left Joy Lamaison questioning the motive of officials at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
The woman, who resides in the United States of America, was forced to return to Guyana recently to care for her son, 28-year-old Jason Fraser, who suffered a gunshot injury to his abdomen during a failed robbery at the Shakers Mexican Grill and Bar at Water Street, Georgetown.
Ms. Joy Lamaison, in the company of her injured son, Jason Fraser, displays an x-ray which shows the bullet lodged in her son’s body.
Fraser, this publication understands, was the Supervisor at the business entity up until the incident on January 26, last. Reports are that the young man was shot as he attempted to physically ward-off an armed intruder.
According to Lamaison, the bullet that struck her son severely damaged his intestines. Lamaison said that doctors at the public hospital were able to surgically repair her son’s injury. They drained his bowels with the use of colostomy bags.
Fraser remained hospitalised for five days at the institution after which he was discharged. “I was so worried about him…I couldn’t even sleep at nights and so since the incident I was trying to talk with the (attending) doctor as often as possible to make certain that everything is okay with him,” recounted Lamaison.
She even recalled being reassured by the doctor that there was nothing to worry about since her son was going to be fine.
“He kept asking me ‘why I was worrying’…and was encouraging me not to stress myself out because Jason was going to be okay,” disclosed Lamaison.
Satisfied that her son was recuperating well, the woman said that she decided to enquire at the Brickdam Police Station about the status of the investigation into the shooting. There she learnt that not only was the investigation on hold since no spent shell was found at the scene of the crime but the bullet that caused her son’s injury was still lodged somewhere in his abdomen.
The information furnished by the police officer came as a total surprise to Lamaison since according to her “I didn’t know the bullet was in my son all this time.”
She was able to confirm the presence of the bullet after her son underwent an x-ray at the privately operated Balwant Singh Hospital.
According to the woman, the police, with whom she spoke, advised her to return to the hospital theatre to find out why the bullet wasn’t removed. And it was while on her way to the theatre, Lamaison said, that she saw the very doctor who had attended to her son.
“I asked him why he hadn’t told me that the bullet was not removed and his words to me were, how you know?”
“I said because I am now coming from the police station and a police told me and asked me to come and speak to somebody here.
“I kept asking him why he didn’t tell me and he simply said ‘You didn’t ask me’.”
“He is a doctor; he is supposed to tell me this; he was the one who did the procedure on my son,” ranted the woman. The doctor, according to her, eventually informed her that the bullet was positioned in “some layer” and went on to tell her, “The Georgetown Hospital don’t trace bullets’.
Lamaison is convinced that it was a deliberate move by the doctor to not inform her of the bullet since even the medical report he prepared did not allude in any way to the bullet still being present in her son’s body.
“How is it that he could’ve discharged this boy and tell me nothing about that? I even took him back to clinic to see the same doctor and nothing was said of this bullet. They withheld information from me and that is very important information,” lamented the woman.
The recent revelation has since led Lamaison to seek help from the US Embassy to take her son overseas to have the bullet removed. However, the Embassy, according to the woman, requires a medical report from the hospital stating that the bullet is still lodged in her son’s abdomen. But according to the woman “They giving me a runaround to get this report; these people have me up and down…the least they could do is give me what is required to take my son somewhere to get that bullet removed.
“If they could’ve taken the bullet out, why didn’t they? And since they didn’t, why didn’t they tell me?” questioned the confused mother who believes she is being discriminated against.
She said that she had even taken her concerns to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health who had asked the Chief Executive Officer of the Hospital to furnish the needed document.
The woman, this publication was told, returned to the hospital yesterday and was again told she needed to come back, a response which “broke the camel’s back.”
“All they telling me is that people does live with bullet…That is those people but allow me to take my son to get other medical attention to satisfy my mind. This thing is worrying me because I keep thinking what this bullet could do, whether it could travel and cause him harm…”
Further, the woman said that she had cause to go to the Ministry of Labour since her son’s employers, from all indication, have reneged on a promise to compensate him until he was able to return to work.
“Since they said that, they have done nothing for this boy,” disclosed Lamaison who related that her son is currently incapable of caring for himself and two children of his own.
