7 News Belize

COLA To KHMH: Heads Must Roll Or Elseā€¦
posted (June 4, 2013)
Last week, 7News showed you the fiery press release in which the watchdog organization, COLA, condemned the lack of answers provided in the second press conference held by the KHMH.

According to them, it's been more than a month, and the Administration has not provided any meaningful answers to the public about the mass deaths of 12 of its patients from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Well, today, they held their own press conference, and Daniel Ortiz attended. He found out that the rhetoric was dialed up high on behalf of those grieving families.

Geovanni Brackett - President, COLA
"This is a medical disaster and it is being treated it as an incident, in our view. More needs to be done before one dime is given to KHMH for new NICU/PICU. We need to hear extensively from the CEO, what they will do to make sure something like this never occurs again."







Gilroy Usher Jr. - VP, COLA
"From time to time in our society, disasters happen but more interestingly is when an atttempt is made by those to make justice evasive. What transpired at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital is indeed tragic and even more tragic is the attempt to supress or confuse especially those who have suffered most by the tragedy that has occurred."








Nedal Murphy 'Jihad' McLaren - COLA
"The more we think about how the whole scenario acted out the more you can see that there were medical negligence, there was leadership negligence and there is management negligence within the KHMH."








Patrick Menzies - President, Belize Can
"Belizeans we are to blame. We are to blame, it lies square in our laps. You may ask why? Because we've allowed these things to occur in our country and they get swept under the rug time and time again and we do nothing about it."

Daniel Ortiz Reporting
Yes the firebrands assembled today, and provocative posters were all around the room for the cameras to see.

Even after all the time passed, anger at the deaths of a dozen premature babies in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit easily ignited when the topic was brought up once again.

But it was the testimonials of the grieving parents which moved the gathering greatly. They say that even though their children were premature, their health was still in relatively good shape. Things strangely took a turn for the worst.

Harrison Sutherland - Lost His Baby In ICU
"I'm just looking for a deeper investigation - they had on my baby's death certificate as prematurity and the doctors told me that my baby died from an infection. I'm just looking for a deeper investigation. One day they told me that my baby needed blood before 4:00 o'clock the evening I went and I got the blood for my baby and by the time I heard that my baby died at 5am I asked them about the blood and they said that they had not gotten the chance to give my baby the blood - that is what I'm looking into and I just want something to come out of it."






Steven Panton - Lost His Baby In ICU
"I'm mad at the whole situation. They admitted that they were wrong but they don't want to take responsibility for the wrong they are admitting to. They are admitting to the wrong but they still want to blow it and say like it is something normal. They said that this happens in other places to other people and still not giving us an answer. Basically I was being patient this entire time because at the end of the day yes KHMH is a hospital that deals with all of us and all of our people of Belize - it is the facility that we can go to when we're in emergencies and when something goes wrong you look to them for help. Basically I was being patient about the entire matter because I was giving them a chance to redeem themselves and to come forth and take responsibility and also do something about what was done."






Marissa Cruz - Lost Her Baby In ICU
"At 11:30 I was called that my baby was not breathing well but my husband did not say anything because he didn't want me to get worried as I was also suffering from my pressure at that same time. At 11:45 they called again but the funny thing is that when they called at that time they told him that the baby was dead - we got there like 11:50 because we live in the city. By the time we reached there he did not see the baby they had already taken her to the morgue. So at this time I'm not quite happy with their response, I really want something done because I'm suffering right now. This is not my first child that the hospital killed, it's the second one. I want something done because I want to be able to know if I will ever trust the hospital. At this point I don't even want to step near to that hospital. I had a few breakouts of allergies and the first thing I did was go to a private hospital because Karl Heusner will kill me as well. My baby was okay, she was breathing and everything on her own - they told me the Friday before she died that she would have gotten out on April 2nd and she died on April 1st."

These 3 parents confidently assert that their children were almost ready to leave the ICU. They say that if it was not for that outbreak at the Neonatal Unit, they would be home. COLA lays blame for this on the Doctors who didn't handle the situation properly.

Nedal Murphy 'Jihad' McLaren - COLA
"There has also been a breakdown from the chain of command. As a matter of fact it was strange to hear one doctor said 'I don't feel like it was an emergency over the weekend so there was no reason for us to sit on the weekend so I will see it until Monday' which is 48 hours later, every second in life saving measures is critical and for them to have taken 48 hours is another negligence."

Another official who the organization wants to answer for this tragedy is the Minister of Health, Pablo Marin, who mysteriously kept quiet in the last press conference.

Geovanni Brackett
"The Prime Minister was only present to confirm the establishment of the new PICU/NICU but Pablo Marin was at the head table and did not say a word during the time of the press conference and the press for whatever reasons - didn't ask him any questions. He disappeared afterward and delegated to CEO Dr. Peter Allen to answer questions from the press. What is he hiding or who is he hiding from? We need to get someone on the record to be held accountable and it is too early that when an investigation has not even began to reach half it's way to say that management was not responsible. Somebody needs to be held accountable and we can't have a Minister of Health who sits at a head table. Thirteen children have died within twenty days or less and then you say nothing?"

They've also taken issue with the fact that, in their view, KHMH has not afforded the nation any sort of confidence building measure so far in relation to this medical crisis.

Gilroy Usher Jr.
"In my humble view, there has been too much self congratulation and frankly not enough investigation. The hospital and it's CEO are congratulating Tom, Dick and Harry and Janey too, the CEO Dr. Longswoth and Dr. Coye spent at least five minutes of their resepctive statements congratulating themselves, the ministry, prime minster, PAHO and others coming to their aid. Why not save the thanks for when something is actually found - that is not to say that we are not grateful but we pay you for results not for platitudes."

One parent even went further and suggested that KHMH never intended be open with them. She explained that by relaying her experience at an impromptu meeting set up with the parents, moments before one of KHMH press conferences.

Marissa Cruz
"When I asked them the question that if they knew about the bacteria in the hospital - one of them told me that they were not aware. I told them that there were a few doctors that were aware about this bacteria when my child died because when she died a week after - one of the mothers asked me how my child died and if it was because of a bacteria that the specialist told her that there was an infection in the NICU so when I told the Board of Directors that information; I asked them who should be help accountable and they said they were not aware who was. I told them that it was both of them as doctors as well as the directors. The doctors because they knew there was a bacteria in there and they could have come forward to the directors and let them know to do something about it. The directors as well because since March, babies were dying before May and if they were aware of this they should have done something as well., they should have asked to the doctors what was happening., but no one did anything. When I started asking them these questions - at the end of the meeting when the media came, Sheena Garnett was actually telling me that it's best that I didn't stay for the press conference because I could have put the entire thing in jeopardy."

And with that outrage, COLA is organizing a protest on Thursday, to be staged in front of the KHMH.

Geovanni Brackett
"The objective of the protest will be first of all to have somebody be held accountable and the only way that you can have that done is if you have an independent investigative team. 'You can't have the rat mining the cheese' meaning you can't have the same folks that are being investigated are investigating themselves."

According to COLA, they've already received the necessary permits for this protest, and they are calling on all like-minded Belizeans to join them on Thursday.

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