Latest update April 20th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 19, 2017 News
Although it was the ugly sutures that caused Ms Kelsie Browne to question whether the doctor who operated on her daughter had done his work properly, it was however, his conflicting reason for the operation in the first place that
has forced her to call for a thorough investigation.
According to Ms. Browne, while she had no knowledge of why her 15-year old daughter was operated on, ahead of surgery the operating doctor told her that her daughter had an inflamed appendix.
Appendicitis is an inflammation of the appendix which is a three and a half inch long tube of tissue that extends from the large intestine. According to reports, the classic symptoms of appendicitis include: dull pain near the navel or the upper abdomen that becomes sharp as it moves to the lower right abdomen; loss of appetite; nausea and/or vomiting soon after abdominal pain begins; abdominal swelling; fever of 99-102 degrees Fahrenheit and the inability to pass gas.
Browne in recounting how her daughter became a patient of the Region Seven Bartica Hospital in the first instance, disclosed that she brought her daughter, Phebehola Stanford, to the hospital on March 5 last. This was due to the fact that her daughter was experiencing a severe case of diarrhoea and vomiting. “She started getting stomach pains on Saturday, but we thought that it would pass…we went to church and everything, but on Sunday it was just too much for her,” said Browne of her daughter.
As such, she said that she took her daughter to the hospital hoping that she would be able to at least get a gravol injection to stop the vomiting.
“I wasn’t too worried about the diarrhoea, because I was prepared to go and buy the ORS (Oral Rehydration Salts) for her, but it was really this vomiting that had me worried,” the woman related.
According to Browne, at the hospital her daughter was attended to by a female doctor who administered the requested injection, but also decided to admit her daughter for observation overnight. Browne disclosed that the doctor revealed that she made the decision to admit Stanford since they resided some distance away – at One and Half Miles Bartica, Potaro Road. “She said she didn’t want my daughter to develop any complications during the night and it was best for her to stay in the hospital.”
Browne said that she left her daughter in the care of the hospital and returned the next day to visit. It was then that she was informed by a nurse that her daughter would have to undergo surgery. The nurse, according to Browne, was unable to share the reason for the surgery.
“I asked the nurse why my daughter needed surgery, but all she said was that she didn’t know, but it could help to save my daughter’s life,” Browne recounted.
The woman said that she learnt that the decision for the surgery was made by a Cuban male doctor who assumed duty on the ward the day after her daughter was admitted.
“I tried to find out why she needed the surgery…but because I was so worried and I didn’t want anything to happen, I decided to sign, giving consent for the surgery,” revealed Browne, who recalled that she was worried that despite being given medical attention, her daughter continued to experience severe pain.
But it wasn’t until after the surgery, Browne said, that she was able to have a brief conversation with the doctor, who said that the surgery was warranted because an ultrasound revealed that her daughter had an inflamed appendix.
“He said that he could see what looked like pus in her belly and surgery was the only option…he left me thinking too that by giving consent, I helped to save my daughter’s life.”
Browne said that she waited at the hospital for the entire two-hour operation and continued to wait until her daughter revived and became alert of her surroundings. But the woman said that she became enraged when she examined the wound left by the surgical procedure.
“It was this ugly horrible cut left on my daughter with these horrible looking stitches from my daughter’s vagina area to her navel. This is my young daughter with these cuts! I know women who got cut for their babies and didn’t have a horrible cut like what he left on my daughter,” the woman lamented.
The woman said it was upon seeing that she started to question whether the doctor had in fact removed her daughter’s appendix.
“Nobody showed me anything and nobody was explaining anything to me either,” said the evidently irked woman. In fact, she disclosed that while visiting her daughter, she was barely able to prevent her from coming off of the hospital bed in a manner that could have burst the sutures.
“The nurses weren’t even telling this child that she should come off the bed on her side and not straight forward…it seems like nobody was doing anything to really help this child,” said the distraught woman.
Browne has since taken her concerns to the Regional Health Officer of the hospital, Dr. Edward Sagala, who has promised to investigate all of her concerns.
“I want this to go public…I want people to know that these doctors need to say what they are doing…when I started questioning the doctor, he kept saying he cut my daughter so big in case he had to do something else instead of the appendix,” said the woman who is convinced that the doctor has not been entirely truthful about what the surgery truly entailed.
According to the woman, days after the surgery her daughter continued to experience the same discomfort in addition to pains to her side and spine.
“I am only praying for my daughter to make a full recovery and I want to get to the bottom of what really happened in that operating room,” the woman asserted.
Where is the BETTER MANAGEMENT/RENEGOTIATION OF THE OIL CONTRACTS you promised Jagdeo?
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