‘Death without dignity’

MONTEGO BAY, St James — Relatives of 62-year-old tour operator Michael Neita never imagined he would spend the last 22 hours of his life on a chair inside Cornwall Regional Hospital’s (CRH) Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department.

Neita was taken to the Type A facility in Montego Bay on May 25, seeking treatment for severe chest, arm, abdominal and back pain but did not leave the facility alive.

According to his daughter Dacia Chambers, their grief was made worse when a promised post-mortem was later deemed unnecessary.

She sees the treatment meted out to her father, and later his grieving relatives, as symptomatic of wider deficiencies at CRH, and is adamant that an autopsy must be done.

“Our family is left shattered, not just by his sudden death, but by the cold, unacceptable conditions under which he spent his final hours,” Chambers said in a letter to the Jamaica Observer.

There have long been complaints of patients placed on chairs in a cramped area while they wait for treatment at CRH, a practice which administrators have explained is necessary because there is a shortage of bed space.

On April 9, as Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton announced that CRH was back up to its pre-Hurricane Melissa complement of 300 beds he cautioned that the A&E Department continues to struggle under the weight of, on average, between 30 and 50 individuals at a time in need of urgent medical care.

This is of no moment to Chambers, who described the conditions under which her father died as “a catastrophic failure of patient safety, transparency, and basic human dignity”.

“It should never be acceptable to leave a patient suffering from potential cardiac symptoms sitting in a chair for nearly 24 hours. It should never be normal to watch a patient walk to a bathroom while suspecting a major cardiac event. It should never be normal to use a ‘patio’ as a permanent holding space for the vulnerable,” she argued.

Chambers said that during a meeting with hospital staff — in what she describes as a “storeroom” — family members were told her father was treated for a heart attack even though the resident doctor admitted CRH “lacked the facilities” to do the tests needed to support this diagnosis.

FRAY…A full investigation will be done and further discussions held with the family.

“Later, despite being promised a post-mortem examination because he died less than 24 hours after admission, we received a Medical Certificate of Cause of Death citing ‘fatal sepsis’ and ‘urinary tract infection’, with the box checked [indicating] no post-mortem necessary,” she said.

However, when contacted by the Jamaica Observer, the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA) indicated that it will facilitate the requested autopsy.

“We would like to express sincere condolence to the family members of the patient,” WRHA Clinical Coordinator Dr Delroy Fray said in a statement.

He said the hospital records show that Neita arrived at CRH in an acute state, but his condition was addressed within hours and after he was stabilised he was moved to an area for patients no longer deemed as an emergency; however, he died there.

“We understand their concerns and, in the interest of transparency and ensuring that all questions are addressed, we will fully support the request for an autopsy,” Dr Fray stated.

“A full investigation will be done and further discussions held with the family,” he assured.

In addition to the now-granted request for an autopsy Chambers, in her letter, also demanded “clear timelines and concrete evidence from the Ministry of Health detailing what is being done to fix the working conditions and patient safety protocols” at CRH.

She had questions for Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness, Tufton, and other government officials.

“Where do your loved ones go when they are sick? Are you comfortable with them sitting on a plastic chair in pain for a day? What is being done to ensure the people of Jamaica are treated with pride and dignity when they are at their most vulnerable?” pressed Chambers.

“Death may be inevitable, but dying without dignity due to a broken system is something we will never normalise,” she added.