Dear Editor,
ON Tuesday, October 15, I sat down at my desk to take in the news. Everything was going swimmingly well until I saw the front page of Kaieteur News. Mr. Editor, as a doctor, I am trained to deal with and manage most things. Frankly, I do not think there is much more in life for me to see, in terms of patients’ injuries. I am not easily shocked; most doctors are not easily shocked.

Anyway, what I saw in the Kaieteur News was quite grotesque, graphic, shocking and uncalled for. Apparently, over the weekend, a gentleman was strangled and beaten to an unidentifiable pulp on Middle Street. Apparently the man’s identity was unknown. Kaieteur News, always ready to maximise sales, decided to place the graphic photo of the dead gentleman, with blood and likely cerebrospinal fluid oozing from his nostrils and ears. The other injuries are too graphic to describe for the reading public.

Mr. Editor, I would argue that this was not necessary. We are in the 21st Century; a time of computers, biometric passports, retinal scanners, etc. I am no computer specialist, but I am quite sure that they should have a few in Guyana. As a matter of fact, I do not believe what I am about to suggest requires complex computer skills, since it may just be a software. I am alluding to an Electronic Facial Identification Technique (E-fit); that is what is used in the 21st Century. A computer- generated image of the person in question, minus the grotesque images, if public assistance is required to identify the deceased.

And that was not all. A soldier was shot in Tucville a few days ago. Initial reports suggested that he might have been a bandit who tried to rob a gold miner. This turned out not to be true. Kaieteur News, in the business of shock and awe, had the dead man’s image plastered on their pages; blood pouring from his chest, and his eyes half- open.

This is shocking in the 21st Century. Sorry, these are not the days of Jack the Ripper, where the masses desperate for entertainment but no television or radios to provide such would look forward to a daily diet of death and blood in their tabloid newspapers. Glenn Lall and Adam Harris, were those graphic photos necessary! How would you feel if you were to open the papers and see your loved ones dead and plastered on the front pages with graphic injuries!

Mr. Editor, death is terminal; there is no coming back from death. Don’t believe Benny Hinn. As doctors, we have to break the news to relatives when their loved ones die. This process can take up to an hour. In preparation for the bad news, they are sat in a quiet room with relatives and a nurse to support them; they are offered a drink. Then the bad news is gradually given in a sensitive, empathetic and caring way. The bad news is broken slowly. If it is too much for them to take, then we pause and support them. That’s why it takes up to an hour.

Mind you, we are just breaking the news, and they have not seen their loved one as yet.  Despite the compassion shown on informing them of the death of the loved ones, the relatives would be devastated. Now, having read that, try to imagine how Grandma Jane would react if she were to open the Kaieteur News, with no support at home, and then see her youngest grandson, Alan’s dead body with grotesque injuries plastered on the front page?

Let me say this, this is a pattern of behaviour by the Kaieteur News that has been happening for years; the undignified treatment of the dead to maximise sales. When I worked in Guyana and an alleged bandit was shot, Kaieteur News gets the image of the dead bandit, by whatever means, as he lay in ER. This image would find its way on the front page for maximum effect, and send the masses tumbling over each other to get a copy of the newspaper to take in the graphic images as they sip on their bush tea. In contrast, Glenn Lall, happy with the day’s work and day’s earnings, would enjoy a sumptuous dinner with his family as he sips on his Remy Martin Louis wine, as the families of the deceased, devastated by the images of their mutilated loved ones, sit on the steps of their shack, painfully grieving and crying their eyes out. Is this acceptable in a civilised 21st Century society?

What I saw this week was the straw that broke the camel’s back. We are judged as a people by the way we treat the elderly and the deceased. Glenn Lall, you should hold your head in shame! Making millions from the emotional pain of innocent poor people!
Regards,
Dr. Mark Devonish, MBBS  MSc Med. Ed  FRCP(Edin)  FRCP(UK)
Consultant Acute Medicine
Nottingham University Hospital
UK