Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 01, 2014 News
By Sharmain Grainger
“Justice delayed is justice denied” is certainly not a concept that has fazed Nathalie
Caseley over the past year. In fact to some, the 29-year-old has no less than the strength of a battalion of soldiers ‘at the ready’ to take on her worst enemy.
Caseley, currently a mother of two young children – Jada and Jonathon, could have in fact been the mother of three healthy children had her firstborn son – Jaden Mars – not met his untimely death on December 10, 2013. The story of Mars’ demise is one that was kept on the front-burner in the media throughout the past year as Caseley refused to falter in keeping her son’s issue alive. A tour through the Kaieteur News’ online archive (www.kaieteurnewsonline.com) will easily reveal this.
Just over a year ago a distraught Caseley, an employee of Qualfon Guyana, had related to media operatives that her son had passed away at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) after being admitted there on December 4, 2013, to have a small cut on his tongue sutured. The turn of events which followed was shocking as it was overwhelming.
According to Caseley, the child had walked into the hospital in a perfectly healthy condition aside from the injured tongue which was already well cared for by nurses at the East La Penitence Health Centre where he was initially taken for medical attention. The only thing that
the nurses at the Health Centre were unable to do was suture the child’s tongue
Mars, according to Caseley, had fallen and hit his mouth on a five gallon bucket while playing. At the time he was at home with his grandmother, Nancy Gittens, at their 45 West Ruimveldt, Georgetown, residence.
Gittens took her grandson to the Heath Centre herself and then to the GPHC where he was referred. Upon arrival at the GPHC, Caseley accompanied the two as she on learning of the incident, immediately left her East Coast Demerara place of employment to be with her son.
Reports are that the child was administered at least two dosages of 25 milligrams of Ketamine in order to sedate him to allow for the unhindered suturing of his tongue. The medication however, did not work as expected on the child resulting in him being transferred to the operating theatre to be administered controlled medication before being sutured.
But it was at this point that things became a blur to Caseley.
Not only would her son slip into a state of “unexplained” unconsciousness and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital; but he passed away within a matter of days, leaving the young mother with more questions than answers. And the answers Caseley needed
were certainly not forthcoming.
A post mortem examination subsequently revealed that the child died from Pulmonary Embolism, commonly referred to as PE. PE is a blockage of the main artery of the lung or one of its branches by a substance that has travelled from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream.
But being the determined individual that she is, a death certificate, outlining a vague cause of death, was certainly not enough for Caseley. She was in fact, very convinced even then that her son’s death was a direct result of malpractice.
Although several meetings with health officials eventually saw some acceptance of blame, and several investigations definitively ascertained that the child’s death was a result of negligence, this publication was informed that only one of the at least four health officials who attended to Mars was sent on administrative leave.
Caseley has however, been pushing for sincere action/s to be taken at both the level of the GPHC and the Ministry of Health.
Her 2014 vow was therefore to sustain her fight for justice at all cost. Being pregnant during the early part of the year certainly did not hamper her quest. In fact, she took many days off from work to get to the bottom of what transpired during her son’s hospitalisation.
Her fight for justice included staging picketing activities outside of the Ministry of Health and included, but was not limited, to retaining a lawyer to fight her cause.
Caseley has been, and continues to be, a force to be reckoned with as she pursues her fervent mission to get justice for her son. In fact, she intimated recently that this was in fact a promise that she had made to her lifeless son moments after he was pronounced dead on December 10, 2013.
And the support that she has been receiving towards this cause has been immense – some openly and some quietly.
At a candlelight vigil to commemorate the one-year death anniversary of her son on December 10, last at the entrance of the hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department, her supporters ranged from politicians to social activists to the very ordinary man, some of whom had lost relatives at the very health facility.
According to Caseley, while she is aware that her efforts will in no way resurrect her son, she is hopeful that it will serve to help bring about a change, not only at the GPHC, but at health facilities across the country.
Her sustained fight for justice has been lauded by many, including Minister of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, who is also of the view that the exposure of negligence would help to steer health workers in the right direction.
This is in spite of the fact that the Health Ministry has not shared any intentions of readily providing the closure the young mother so badly desires. However, a recent correspondence from the Guyana Medical Council informed Caseley, that yet another investigation was slated to be launched into the death of her son with a view of ensuring that all parties involved will be interviewed.
But the renewed tactic, according to Caseley, seems to be one aimed at stalling the whole process of justice. She recently said that “these people have me fighting for justice even after a year of them knowing that they caused the death of my son!”
“I don’t mind if my son was a sacrifice; if my son would have died for the betterment of the institution I can live with that. If I can say that because Jaden died this is now a better institution I can live with that, but I am still reading Jaden’s story, I am hearing about other Jadens, I am still hearing from people who are still losing people (family members) every day,” said Caseley as she stood in the midst of a crowd outside the GPHC to mark the one-year death anniversary of her son.
And even as another year commences, Caseley said that she will remain resolute to the fight for justice for her son.
An interesting recognition of her efforts was amplified in a letter signed by ‘J. Lu’ and published the October 11, 2014 edition of this newspaper. The author, in highlighting the distinguished achievement of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani child education activist, for sharing this Year’s (2014) Nobel Peace Prize with Indian child rights campaigner, Kailash Satyarthi, also went on to point out that Caseley “…has been waging a relentless battle with authorities since the death of her son, Jaden Mars, last December (2013).
According to J. Lu, Caseley must be commended for her resoluteness and fortitude as she fights for justice for her son. The author noted too that “Malala is a heroine but Nathalie (Caseley) is my heroine too,” even as it was pointed out that the two are “…from different corners of the world fighting for different causes, but held by the common string of belief in what they are doing not just for themselves, but the greater good.”
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