– after waiting four hours to see a doctor
AN 82-year-old man died in a wheelchair at the Accident and Emergency Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), after waiting for almost four hours to be seen by a doctor. Pathetically, despite constant pleas by three of his children accompanying him, for him to be taken into the treatment room to be attended to, he died without being even touched by a doctor.
Dead is Vernon Roberts, of Lot 15 Victoria Village, East Coast Demerara, a widower of 30 years, and father of eleven. The retired security guard, arrived at the hospital around 11:00 hrs, complaining of difficulty in breathing, was triaged within 30 to 45 minutes, and succumbed around 15:00 hrs.
Confusion broke out in the waiting area of the Accident and Emergency Unit, when, it was discovered by a retired nurse, also waiting in a wheel chair to be seen by doctor, that the octogenarian had died. But ironically, his son Jermaine, who noticed that some watery, slimy substance was flowing from his father’s nose and mouth, was wiping the old man’s face and did not realize that he had already died, until the woman (retired nurse) decided to check his pulse. She said she did not like what she was seeing, and decided to check his pulse, but got no pulse beat.
Patients in the waiting area went hysterical, but his three children: Jermaine, Madonna and Debra were probably in denial, and much too shocked to believe that their father had really died. It was a few moments before it eventually sank in and they too, joined in the litany of hysteria.
The siblings recalled that, when their father was taken to hospital, he was experiencing great difficulty in breathing, and spoke very little, but recognized everyone around him.  Jermaine recalled that as they waited for his father to be taken into the treatment room, he realized that he was experiencing discomfort and on several occasions, begged the nurses to let the old man go in, but they wouldn’t let him. When his back could no longer take the strain of sitting up in the wheel chair, he slumped, but not even that made a difference. When called upon again, the nurse reportedly responded in disgust, “Suh what yuh want me to do?”
It was around this time that the experienced former health professional decided to intervene and discovered that it was a dead man in the chair next to her. In the commotion, the medical staff on duty in the treatment room hastened outside and wheeled him into the room, but it was much too late.
Meanwhile, the man’s daughters said that about three weeks ago he seen at the Enmore Polyclinic and transferred to the GPHC for admission.   They said that the recommendations made by the Polyclinic were never honoured and the man was discharged a few days later. As a result they were forced to employ the services of a private health care worker to treat him at home.
Weeping outside the hospital, late yesterday afternoon, Roberts’ two daughters lamented that he did not deserve the kind of death he suffered.
And patients at the A&E Unit were very vocal about what they termed negligence on the part of the staff outside in the triage area.
Attempts to reach the Public Relations Officer were unsuccessful, and when this newspaper checked with the Matron’s Office it was verified that the man did die while awaiting in the wheelchair to be seen by a doctor.