Dear Editor,
I PROMISED that I would never visit the Suddie Public Hospital again after a bad experience which I had encountered and caused me to end up paying millions of dollars at the Ruby Hall Super Specialty Hospital ,in Mumbai,India. On April 20,2004, I had a motorcycle accident and I was admitted to Ward Two of the Suddie hospital. During the night, I fell into a deep sleep and as I tried to turn onto my side, I fell off the bed which caused serious injuries to my spinal cord.The night shift nurse who was on duty was supposed to monitor me throughout the night, but she leave the ward at midnight and went to sleep in a room; the bed had no rails to secure me in case of a fall and two patients had to pick me up and place me on the bed.

The very next day I was transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation ( GPHC) by an ambulance, where I was admitted to the Accident and Emergency Unit after I was diagnosed with a T-8 fracture of my spinal cord. Surgery was performed, but I was not successful, so in 2008 I went to India for corrective surgery. After returning to Guyana from India, I stayed away from the Suddie Public Hospital, where I was advised to do a regular medical check-up andI would go to Georgetown at a private doctor to do my check-ups. It was very costly, but I had no other choice, since I was afraid and had no confidence in the nurses and doctors at the Suddie hospital.

My friend became the new administrator for the Suddie hopstial and he had encouraged me to take the check-ups there, and he would arrange for a good doctor to look at me. I decided to take his advice and I started going back to the hospital.There were times when things weren’t going too well and other times things were well, depending on who were the doctors and nurses. My worst nightmare came back to haunt me on April 9,2017, when I decided to go for my usual three-week check-up. I left my home at Anna Regina in the morning at about 8 am. As I entered the dressing room, the first thing that I was greeted with by the nurse who operates the dressing room, was that my medication was not available and she would use a substitute.

She tried to insert the bigger substitute into my urinal tract to release my urine and blood started to flow non-stop; my shorts which I had on was drenched with blood,the nurse became confused and started to panic. She summoned another nurse to help her. After seeing my condition, the other nurse Jamila refused to assist; all this time I was in severe pain and still bleeding profusely.The two nurses began to play in the room while I kept lying on the bed.One of them decided to summon a surgeon by the name of Dr Peter who came, but he couldn’t do anything because of the blackouts; anyhow,he decided to take a chance by using a pentorch to insert something else; still there was no urine, so they took me out from the dressing room to the observation ward.

Dr Peter told me that he would keep me in the hospital. In the meantime, my wife went home to get some clothes for me to change and stay in the hospital and I was left lying in blood with no nurses and no one was checking on me to see if my condition had worsened. I called my private nurse who wasn’t far away from the hospital to come and check on me; she came and was left amazed to see my tummy was stiff and I was trembling with cold fever and more blood was oozing and kept wetting my shorts.She called out one Dr Doodnauth, a female doctor, to have a look at me. When she arrived, she was left surprised and both of them decided to remove the tube from inside my urinary tract and re-inserted it; it was now 3: 00pm and the nurse who was left to overlook and monitor me wanted Dr Doodnauth to sign and take me over in good condition before she left for home after her shift came to an end.

Dr Doodnauth refused to sign and take me over, saying that the patient is not in good condition and an argument erupted between both parties. I was left alone lying on the bed with my private nurse overlooking me until four doctors arrived to examine me; my wife then arrived with my clothes. After all the pulling and dragging between the doctor and the nurse,we decided to take self-discharge and charter a flight to Dr Blawant Singh’s hospital to seek better medical attention. All this time, we were in contact with my two sons who are living in Canada and Bermuda and they also encouraged me to take self-discharge and go to a private hospital in Georgetown. Dr Peter insisted that I would not be able to meet Georgetown in that critical condition as I was losing blood constantly, and added that he would perform an emergency surgery immediately if I agreed. My wife and I then decided after much convincing and I signed to take the surgery and went into the operating theatre where it was done successfully.

Having spent eight days in this hospital,I was able to meet patients and see for myself why this hospital is so rundown ,lacking the basic services and in deplorable condition; for me, the hospital lacks proper management and supervision, the nurses and doctors are working under severe constraints and we must commend them.One young Guyanese doctor told me that they were trained to work under difficult circumstances and without the necessary tools and equipment,the theatre is an old and outdated one from what I had seen in India and shabby looking, filthy and untidy; the operation bed is like an ironing board — very small — not more than three feet wide. After the surgery was completed, I was transferred to the ICU.

At nights, patients cannot sleep in this unit,the noises are endless with talking and loud laughter. The service here was better by the Cubans in the ICU; they were more professional in dealing with the sick patients than the Guyanese nurses who are unprofessional.Before I was transferred to Ward Two surgical ward, I sought an audience with Dr Grey( MS) whom I was made to understand by Regional Chairman Devanand Ramdatt,that she is responsible for all the doctors and the management of the hospital. I wanted to air some of my concerns which I had seen and witnessed and Dr Grey accepted my invitation and decided to meet with me in the ICU. Around 8:00 am in the morning, we met and shook hands and introduced ourselves; I discussed a number of critical areas which are lacking in the hospital and need improving urgently, the most critical one was the shortage of life-saving drugs at the hospital and the attitudes of some nurses.She agreed with me on all the issues raised and promised to look into them.She told me where the shortage of drugs is concerned, it’s a country-wide problem.

As I arrived at Ward Two Surgical, I knew that I was in for a rough time: the appearance was filthy and dirty and the smell was obnoxious; the bed sheets were filthy and stink. At one time there were no bed sheets when it was washed and put in the open air to dry. Families have to use their own bedsheets to cover the beds, the toilets were filthy and stank ; the overhead fans in the wards were not working and the ward was as hot as a furnace. Rats are living in the patients’ cupboards and biting their clothes and other things; blackouts are endless during surgeries and in the wards,the water used to wash mouth and brush teeth and bathe is brownish, the wards are terribly hot night and day and patients have to walk with their own fans.

Every patient has to sleep under a net or your blood will be sucked dry by the multitude of mosquitoes.At 8:00 pm, the nurses cannot be seen in the ward,all you hear is laughing and texting on Facebook. If a patient fell sick you have to call on top of your voice to get attention and medication. At 6:00 am, no nurses could be seen to sponge down or bathe the helpless patients, they are left for the families to look after when they visit.You have to demand then they will give you a slap- dash bath.

The families are given one hour to visit by the time they have to bathe or sponge down their sons,daughters,fathers,mothers and husbands; the one hour was being used up in tidying up their loved ones.They can barely get to feed them,sometimes they are left half-way eating and when the bell rings, visitors have to leave the wards and the compound. I can write a book on the shortcomings and mismanagement of this hospital — this is just the tip of the iceberg .There is also serious infighting among staff,some are represented, while others are left to fight their own battles.

Something needs to be done urgently to upgrade this hospital or patients will continue to suffer and die. There are some good and professional nurses,but some are very lackadaisical in performing the duties. I think they know about the Hippocratic Oath which they took and their obligations and proper conduct towards the patients.

Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan.
NCN freelance journalist.