IT has been an ongoing serious and traumatic circumstance that we Berbicians are being faced with in Corriverton, Skeldon Hospital lacks quality care and also qualified nurses, good medication and updated technology to improve the life of citizens and offer help to patients coming to this hospital. There was a recent incident that occurred on October 16 where a University of Guyana Berbice Campus, Education student, Esther Dwarka, lost her life while giving birth to a child because she was neglected and unattended to while in labour. That resulted in her giving birth not in the labour unit but on an ordinary bed screaming for her life while haemorrhaging to death with no doctor or nurse being concerned with the cruel and horrifying incident that occurred.
This news was shock for me since I knew this woman as one of my friends’ sister and by face and meeting her on a few occasions. It was really sad for me to know that this woman of 29 years was shone off instead of taking interest over the fact that she was having a baby. I cannot believe how inhuman our fellow Guyanese are towards each other, allowing someone to bleed to death. She was the daughter of a highly respected Christian home of No.64 village and a teacher. When I went to UG Monday and saw her picture on the bulletin board announcing her death I was astonished to wonder why a person with great potential to build herself with a professional career and a family life would have her death in such a condition that could have been taken care of in a better manner. It was mentioned that she died but her third child that she was giving birth to on that day, survived. The father, Mr. Bowles, is left to raise their three kids. The father of the child wanted to assist his wife while she was in labour and the nurses shouted on him to stay outside. If they were not paying any attention to this woman why didn’t they allow the husband to help? Do you know that in the public hospitals in North America the doctors and nurses allow the mother in labour to be comforted by her husband standing by her side and holding her hand for support? I believe this should start happening in Guyana too. What will become of three motherless children? Would the negligent nurses or doctors care now for the aftermath of the situation that they caused? One of my grandmothers once told me of an incident she also experienced at the Skeldon Hospital with her staying alive but losing her last child, a baby girl because she was neglected and not paid attention and shouting for help with her labor pains and the nurses responding  to her with, “Leave she, let she try there!” Don’t you think that was a harsh, cruel and ridiculous remark to make on someone whilst in pain? Why is the staff being inhuman there? Would they like to be treated in that way? Do you think this is fair for us Berbicians to suffer with a hospital that is not equipped with hospitable qualified doctors and nurses and tools in order to perform with standards? What bothers me the most is that there is another particular dirty remark that they throw on all women who are giving birth to babies in the hospital, it is, “When you does deh with your man in bed you don’t make so much noise like now when you make baby.” No wonder one of my female lecturers always used to advise us young women that if we have to give birth let us do so at a private hospital, but that is not the point. The public ones should be as equipped with friendly staff, proper tools and medication as the private ones. I think this is a totally unacceptable insult and that this matter should be taken to higher authorities in order to improve our way of living, surviving and recuperating at this Skeldon Hospital. We need to be paid special attention to because so far all of the hospitals have been receiving equipment and qualified doctors and instead Skeldon Hospital has been getting “Quacks” and “Bullies” to serve the nation. This is not right and this situation should not be allowed to continue. This has been going on for a very long time, imagine that no one never reported these ongoing unbearable reality they have been facing from the people in charge at the Skeldon Hospital. Issues like these that need to be addressed and raising of public awareness of what is going on  because the government probably have no clue of the cruelty towards human act occurring and this needs to be identified to them so the authoritarians can make a great change that would benefit thousands of people living in Berbice,.
I am calling on Miss. Priya Manickchand, Minister of Human Services and Social Security and also Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, Minister of Health, to take charge of this intolerable issue of lacking of good care of patients, and improve facilities, equipment, medication etc. Get rid of the negligent nurses because they are not caring for patients but killing them instead with insults and avoidance. The hospital is not a bad place; it is the heartless nurses working there. I am not talking about people alone here, I will address two horrific circumstances I went through when being treated or should I say not treated fairly at this hospital. I was 15 years old when I had to extract a tooth at this hospital and could you believe the doctor handling me did not put me under any anaesthetic but just wrenched the tooth out with a big scary looking pliers and was also in a bad mood that day and should never be in one because if you are working for a hospital you are supposed to be hospitable with your patients. Another incident was when I was 18 years old, I had to return to this same hospital because I was cleaning my parents freezer to sell for an upcoming event and I had to take care of glass bottle beverages and while doing so a Guinness bottle exploded and cut my lip and I had to go get it stitched quickly or I would have bled to death, since I already bled a quarter bucket of blood but was still in stable condition because I am a very strong woman. Anyway, my father and a driver rushed me to the Skeldon Hospital where a female nurse with a hasty temper and a bad attitude told me to “Shut up! Why you crying like a baby! And shoved a piece of cotton in my mouth and kept on repeating those not soothing but scary words to me in a harsh manner. When I was finally attended to after about a half hour the doctor who was supposed to stitch me up, never did, instead he stapled my lip together with large staples and while walking out of the hospital the staples loosed and I ended up going to a private doctor and got my lipped stitched and it looks as if I never had a chop on my lip. The popular remark about this hospital is “If you want to die, go to Skeldon Hospital.”
Many incidents have happened to Guyanese living within this hospital district and these victims of verbal abuse and circumstances do not know how to address the problem and are scared and are blaming the government when they come out but its not the government’s fault it is the nurses working there and carefree doctors to be blamed. I believe this is enough and that this matter needs to be taken up in the interest of health care in Berbice. It is big hurtful things like these that don’t encourage foreigners to live here.
Saying the truth here in my article is not an offence, sin or should not be taken as a problem with the PPP since I am a member but should be taken into consideration as a young woman telling the truth, who wants to make a great change for everyone’s lives and discontinue the harm and hard ways of the current situation at Skeldon Hospital. We are all humans and we all have feelings despite the colour of our skin or texture of our hair. There is an old saying: “What you don’t like for yourself, must not do these things to others.” I don’t know how these nurses or doctors were trained to behave in such a manner but I got my training from my home with good manners and it is with me till today. Wake up people! Wake up and live! We should not live this kind of life where we act like superiors in a public place to make others feel inferior by not addressing needs or treating people like animals and disrespecting humanity by saying dirty words. We have to see that something is done with the situation and that it happens soon enough so people who are poor don’t have to worry to pay money to go to a private hospital because the government ones should  be as good as those. My resolution to this problem would be to get rid of the cold-blooded doctors and nurses and bring in new qualified and caring professional nurses and doctors today to make the great change of saving lives and being gentle and helpful towards the patients at Skeldon Hospital. Stop being vulnerable and acting like a floor mat, speak out loudly towards the government that can help you today. On behalf of myself and family, the staff of the University of Guyana and fellow colleagues of Esther Dwarka, we are all in sorrow and we would all like to send our deepest sympathy and utmost condolences to the Dwarka family of No.64 village. I must quote from the bible the famous verse that shows how much Jesus loves us it is John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  Rest in peace Esther and God will always be with you and your family.