Probe ordered into ‘mystery’ death of West Dem schoolgirl
13 year-old Mariza Kissoon
13 year-old Mariza Kissoon

 

AN INVESTIGATION has been launched into the circumstances surrounding the death of a 13-year-old student of New Era Academy, a private school located at Parfait Harmonie.Minister of Health, Dr George Norton when contacted on Wednesday told Guyana Chronicle that he has requested a thorough report on the circumstances surrounding the death of the teen and noted that the report ought to be with him sometime today.

“I am awaiting a report on the matter, an investigation has been launched,” said the Minister, who described the death of the child as “a sad situation.”

Amelia Sammy, head teacher of the New Era Academy located in Parfait Harmonie
Amelia Sammy, head teacher of the New Era Academy located in Parfait Harmonie

“I am going to get to the bottom of this,” he assured. Mariza Kissoon died last week after collapsing, while in her classroom and according to reports she was rushed to the Emergency Room of the West Demerara Regional Hospital but was not attended to immediately.

Kissoon’s classmates, teachers and friends all contend that the alive, but unconscious teen, was panting for breath when she was taken to the Hospital but it was due to lack of medical attention that she lost her life.

A friend of the teenager told Guyana Chronicle on Wednesday that they were in their Grade 7 classroom when their head teacher, Amelia Sammy was conducting a Health and family life education (HFLE) class. Kissoon was asked a question to which she promptly answered, but shortly after answering the question she collapsed in her chair.

“…when she go to sit down she faint…When she go to fall and I held her up and I called for Ms. Sammy,” the classmate recounted.

Another classmate said he observed when the 13-year-old collapsed and rushed to her assistance. He disclosed that the teen earlier that day said she was unwell, and complained of a headache. She had also told her classmates that she was upset because she spilled her mother’s coffee and her mother was harsh towards her. “Everybody held her up and took her outside…we called her sister and her sister came and we took her to the hospital…teacher said she will take her to the hospital,” a young man recounted.

He explained that while at the hospital there was no one there to assist them to take the unconscious girl to the emergency room of the West Demerara Regional Hospital and so it was he and another male student who lifted her and placed her in a wheelchair they found at the hospital. “While at the hospital they had nobody to put her on the stretcher or wheelchair so myself and colleagues and a security guard there bring a wheelchair and put her and pushed her to the emergency room.”

The lad noted that there was one nurse stationed at the Emergency Room and so they pushed Kissoon towards her but she looked at them and showed then “the wait sign”.

“…at the moment waiting at the triage area she was checking a small girl’s weight…so I was thinking that this is an emergency, why you have to check the girl’s weight… when all of that finished I pushed her to the desk and I assisted to put her on the bed.”

He said up until he and his school mates were putting the girl unto the bed in the emergency room, no nurse, or porter from the hospital was there to assist, instead it was the security guard who lent a helping hand.

“The security helped to put her on the bed… she wasn’t saying anything but she was breathing,” he explained. Shortly after being in the emergency room, the teen recounted that Kisson was connected to an oxygen machine, which subsequently fell. “I helped to pick it up and then the doctor came in and told me to leave…her sister was in there.”

He estimated that approximately 15 minutes was spent at the triage area waiting for the nurse to complete weighing the little child. Eventually, a nurse and doctor arrived. Unfortunately, the doctor arrived without an ophthalmoscope (instrument used to look into the fundus of the eyes and other organs). “When one of the guys went to check her eyes he wasn’t finding his torchlight or whatever it was called… so he left to find it,” the lad added.

Meanwhile, the Head teacher of the school Amelia Sammy made it clear that when she, along with a few of her students took Kissoon to the hospital she was alive. She refuted claims made by the Regional Administration- Region Three via the media that the child arrived at the hospital dead.

She explained that she took about 10 minutes from her school to the Hospital and it was her students who took the 13-year-old out of the car as she left to park the car. “After I got there, I took about 10 minutes to park and after I got in I saw them at the triage area… I told the children we have to take her in because nobody is here. I asked the nurse what is going on and told her it is an emergency.”

By that time, Kissoon had already slid from the wheelchair causing her school mates to hold her head and upper body up. “The children were fixing her…holding her up,” Sammy told Guyana Chronicle.

According to the head teacher, when the doctor arrived “he asked if we had a light…I lend him my little phone but mine wasn’t working effectively, so he left to find his.”

The head teacher said during the time to which the doctor left the emergency room, the oxygen that was placed on Kissoon came off and the equipment used to test her pressure as well. She recounted that it was one of her students who assisted in picking the equipment up but then they were asked to leave the room. “We left them inside with the sister and two nurses came but said they were off duty…so I screamed why is it y’all don’t do a heart test on this girl to see what is going on…when they put on the heart machine, the heart rate was 27.6.”

Shortly after, Sammy said a Cuban doctor arrived in the emergency room and demanded that she leave the room but she still peeped. “I saw him put his hands on her chest and so on and then said ‘no, no’.”

Thereafter, the head teacher said another doctor asked the girl’s sister her relationship to Kissoon and also asked for her mother. Kissoon’s older sister said her mother was unwell and she was the only person at the hospital related to the 13-year-old.
“Then he asked about me and I said I am the head teacher- he asked me to call the parent so I asked why, he said, she is not responding – not regaining consciousness,” said Sammy who believes that had proper care and attention been given to Kissoon she may have been alive today.

“We are not in control of life but if they had taken a little bit more care and given more assistance, I think it would have been different…they left her there and they didn’t even try to do anything…shock her body…they didn’t try anything; they just left her there.” Kissoon reportedly died as a result of inflammation in the brain and a bursting of a major vessel.

The teenage only started the private school recently after her older sister approached Sammy and asked her to register Kissoon, promising to return to pay the school fees. The teenager’s school fees were never paid by the family as she informed the school that her mother was unwell and her father resides in Trinidad and was not working.

Sammy disclosed that from the little interaction she had with the teenager she was disturbed by issues affecting her family. She said the child disclosed her discomfort with her just before her death but attempts by Sammy to contact the teen’s mother was unsuccessful.

Not taking responsibility
Notwithstanding the reports of the students and head teacher of the New Era Academy, the Administration of the hospital is not taking responsibility.

In a statement to the media, the administration said Kissoon was transported to the emergency room within 5 minutes after arriving at the Emergency room and was immediately triaged by a nurse who was at her bedside. That nurse, the statement said did not find any “vital signs” and therefore assumed the assistance of a doctor on duty.

“Upon assumption at Ms. Kissoon’s bedside, which was in less than two (2) minutes, she was already cyanotic, cold to touch, there was no rise and fall in her chest, her pupils were already dilated and not reactive to light, there was no corneal reflex, no pulse, no breath sounds and no heart sounds. After careful examination of the child and knowing that the child had no signs of life and could not be resuscitated the nurse was instructed to remove the oxygen because it was useless at that point. This was a death before arrival at the hospital (D.B.A.).”

The hospital has also accused the head teacher of the school of attempting to “manipulate the truth.”

Kissoon was laid to rest on Wednesday

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