-mother claims child’s condition misdiagnosed

FIVE–month-old baby girl Eimi Patterson of Graham Street, Plaisance, East Coast Demerara, died last week Sunday at the Georgetown Public Hospital after paediatricians reportedly misdiagnosed her condition as Chikungunya.

According to the child’s mother Cindy Bess, the child did not have the mosquito-borne disease, yet she was given medication for it. Bess said that her baby had a cough, which resulted in the appearance of a skin rash from time to time.
She added that the child did not have a cold nor runny nose.
The mother said that on Wednesday October 1, after the rash was becoming worse, she took the baby to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where a paediatrician told her that her baby had Chikungunya.
“After he gave me the medication for the Chikungunya, I used it on my child because I had faith in them. Couple hours after my child started to get more sick, so the next day I took her to the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, where she was diagnosed for a lung problem which causes her to breathe faster,” Bess said.
The mother said that when the baby was sent home, her condition continued to worsen and the very next day she took the baby back to the GPHC, where she was told this time that the baby indeed had a breathing problem.
The baby was then admitted until last week Sunday when she died. Bess said that after the baby had died,
the paediatrician told her that the cause of the baby’s death might be due to weak lungs, which had caused the baby not to breathe properly and the baby’s heart rate to drop.
“The Georgetown Hospital is responsible for my child’s death, because they give me medication for Chikungunya which was wrong, and which made my baby even more sick. They need to accept this,” the mother said.
Bess is asking the relevant authorities to let the trainee paediatrician work along with the professionals since one of them told her she is a trainee. She said that trainees do not know everything and that might have been the cause of the death.
A post-mortem was conducted on the baby on Friday, but no results were given to the mother since they told her that it is for the police, according to Bess. She said she was told to collect the results yesterday around 07:00hrs.
“This is my first child, and I cannot stop crying, it’s hurting me to see she died this way, even her father is distraught and cannot get over the issue,” the mother said.
After the body is released to the family, a quick funeral service will be held, according to the mother.
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of GPHC said that they are awaiting a full report from the head of the paediatric unit before they could make any comment.

(By Asif Hakim)