CONTRARY to reports that 19-year-old Crystal Gibson died as a result of negligence at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC), Head of the Nephrology Department, Dr Kishore Persaud said every effort was made to save the teen but she, with the support of her father, had resisted earlier medical attention.Gibson died on October 17, as a result of kidney failure. Her father Obed Gibson subsequently told reporters that his daughter had to wait approximately four days before she was able to receive dialysis.

But Dr Persaud, in an interview with Guyana Chronicle said Mr Gibson did not tell the whole truth.

The 19-year-old, he explained, was managed by a team of experts within the medical field, inclusive of himself, a transplant surgeon; a nephrologist; a dietitian; social worker and a pharmacist.

According to him, when he saw the young lady for the first time, her kidney was failing her. He said from the initial stage, she had objected to the treatment and a request was made to meet with her immediate relatives.

“He (the father) said, they have no relationship with the mother, and she has no concern about this kid. He said he was the primary person for this girl,” Dr Persaud recalled. The father was then informed that his daughter had reached stage five kidney failure.

During a subsequent visit to the clinic, Dr Persaud said Mr Gibson was given the option of having his daughter undergo a preemptive kidney transplant. However, Mr Gibson, who is also ill, reportedly told the doctor that there was no one willing to donate a kidney.

Given that the transplant was not possible, Dr Persaud reportedly told Mr Gibson that he should prepare his daughter for dialysis. Two months after, the teen with the support of her father had refused to abide by the treatment plan.

“I sit there over half of an hour, and I tried to plead with him to admit this girl. I told him she is getting sick, her blood count is dropping, and she is going to get what you call uraemia because all of the toxin in her body is building up and rather than she coming to us at a rush in the emergency, and it will be too late to do something, let us do something now to save your daughter’s life,” Dr Persaud recalled.

But Mr Gibson reportedly refused to have his daughter admitted.

“I was pleading with both of them for this girl to be admitted but they refused. I called the social worker, the social worker came speak with them individually, the dietitian had work with them and I think the pharmacist also had a word with them… at the end of the day, the decision made by the daughter and her father was to refuse admission,” he added.

DECISION DOCUMENTED
The Head of the Nephrology Department said it was not until the 19-year-old had reached a crisis stage that she was returned to the clinic by her father.

“She came to the clinic but she was so swollen I didn’t recognise her… I told the father this girl is very sick now, we need to get her admitted; they didn’t even want to admit her that day.”

According to the surgeon, after hours of pleading with the father that a decision was taken later that day to have his daughter admitted, she was admitted on Friday, October 14, 2016.

“When she went to the ward her blood count was very low. At that stage she still didn’t want to accept dialysis but we did order a catheter for her. We ordered the blood and we had her on oxygen monitoring her in the ward,” he explained. They were able to secure the blood by Saturday.
On Monday, October 17, she was placed on the dialysis machine for a period of three hours but by that night, the 19-year-old had developed pulmonary edema resulting in her death. Every effort, Dr Persaud said was made to save the teen.
“One dialysis doesn’t save somebody’s life,” he said while reiterating that had the teen received dialysis in the earlier stages of her illness, she would have been alive.

Crystal Gibson was laid to rest on October 25.