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Tonight negligence is being blamed for the death of another baby. The child is a toddler – 21 month Jaydan Guy from Belmopan who died last week after he choked on of all things – a bean. It is a story that has left his parents Eckert and Anna Guy bitter after they took their son to a hospital they thought they could trust. They shared their story with Keith Swift this afternoon.

Keith Swift Reporting,
Anna and Eckert Guy’s ordeal at the Western Regional Hospital began at around 11 am on July 21st when they rushed 1 year old Jaydan to the emergency room after he choked on something at home.

Eckert Guy, Father of Dead Boy
“I told the doctors and nurses to help, my baby is not breathing, he swallowed something and he was choking but he looked like he was having a seizure because of the way his eyes were turning yellow but I held my finger in his mouth. So they took him on the emergency table and they were opening his mouth and checking to see if they saw anything there and I told them my baby is not breathing and he needs air.

We had to like grab him and rushed him over to the X-Ray area. You know when you reach there it was like a little delay like how old he was and whatever. We put him on the X-Ray table to do an X-Ray and at this time now he went into another seizure. His eye was turning up and so my wife grabbed him up again and ran back to the emergency and screamed for them to help us, help us, we need help and they were trying to give him drips and put things in his nose again and the baby is fighting and he is crying with distress.”

Anna Guy, Mother
“It is like he was in and out of consciousness. When he got to the hospital he was fully conscious because he was crying and he was disoriented. He was standing and pulling off the oxygen mask that they use for asthma patients, they tried that on him but his airways were blocked so that wasn’t working. So he pulled that off because he was I guess disoriented and trying to get oxygen. So basically at the emergency room they didn’t restore oxygen to him, they didn’t try to clear his airways, they just sent us to get a x-ray and all this time when we were going from one part of the hospital to the other and going back to the emergency section with the baby he was losing more and more oxygen into his brain and during this time the bay was deteriorating.

After about an hour at the hospital without any effort made to do any CPR, Heimlich manoeuvre, any sort of effort to clear his airway, after an hour you could see the baby completely losing consciousness and this is when a doctor came in and did a slit on his throat and right that he sewed it up back with three stitches and then the paediatrician on call came and I asked please can you do something, do you know what to do to take out whatever it is that my baby is choking on and she said no we don’t have it here, only at Belize Healthcare Partners.”

And that’s where Anna and Eckert decided to take baby Jaydan.

Anna Guy,
“5 minutes before we reached Belize City the baby’s heart stopped and then when we got to Belize Healthcare Partners he was rushed into the emergency room where he was immediately worked on by the doctors there and then they got back a heartbeat and they immediately put him on the ventilating machine and after they stabilized him they were about to do a bronoscopy which is a procedure to remove whatever the blockage but however I learnt that at this time it was already too late because the baby had already lost oxygen for too much of a long period and the brain was already swollen.

The doctor decided that they are not going to do the bronoscopy again, they are going to do a CAT scan to verify the status of the baby’s brain and after doing the Cat scan, they decided it didn’t make sense to do the bronoscopy because of the condition of the baby and the baby was then admitted into the hospital.”

The active 21 month old Jaydan Guy seen here riding a horse just a week before he choked on that bean - died on July 28th.

Anna Guy,
“If the doctor at the emergency room would have informed us that the situation was out of her control and she didn’t know what to do, she should have informed us initially that this is too big for us here, we don’t have x,y, z and you need to do an air ambulance and airlift your child immediately. I didn’t even know I had any option. I wasn’t informed of any option. I was begging, what can you do, where can we go to take him for it to get better because I see it was an hour and they weren’t making my baby any better.”

Eckert Guy,
“The baby was conscious, he had a obstruction in his windpipe somewhere and the people there didn’t take the necessary actions that they should have. Looking at it now there was total chaos. I was there and they had us running up and down, they didn’t know what to do. They are asking for tube and they were totally confused and we were there, we thought we were in capable hands. They are medical personnel, we gave our baby to them so that they can restore him. We told them he was choking and they were there. They are professionals and to me they totally failed us. They failed us and right in front of our eyes we saw our baby just went down and down and down.

It is a shame so we have to look at our healthcare system and try to do better because our kids are our future and right now we are devastated. I feel like a part of me has left me. I still can’t believe it is happening. I feel like I am in a dream right now. I am here with the strength to go through this, knowing that your baby was a healthy baby that wasn’t sick one day.”

Anna Guy,
“I don’t know why the doctor working at the emergency room couldn’t make the call in terms of what to do, who do I call, do I call a surgeon, this situation I cannot handle. To me it was not prioritized properly and its sad and the Ministry really and the government and Prime Minister really need to look deeper into healthcare facility especially at the emergency room. Emergency is where lives are supposed to saved not lost.”

We visited the Belmopan Hospital but were unable to get comment. Some things to note are that the trip to Belize City was delayed because the hospital didn’t have anyone to roll the oxygen tanks into the ambulance. Secondly, Eckert Guy works at BTL and has health insurance. Still they were further delayed at Healthcare Partners because of a problem with their health insurance. We should note that all baby Jaydan needed was a broncoscopy which can be performed in Belize. The family has complained to Director of Health Services Dr. Michael Pitts and have reserved their right to sue.