After Discharged Patient Dies on Hospital Grounds, Netizens Ask, ‘What About Compassion?’ · Global Voices
Facebook status update by <PERSON>, which says, “‘Hospital not to blame.’ The investigations are not complete, but the verdict is Not Guilty.”
If the worth of a society is measured by how it treats its most vulnerable, then Trinidad and Tobago has sunk to a new low, at least according to the judgement handed down by the court of social media. But does online outrage over a video of an elderly man dying on the premises of the Port of Spain General Hospital accurately reflect what happened? The country's health minister, who is in the minority, says not.
A video posted on Facebook on June 7 showed an elderly man lying on the grass in the front of the hospital's compound. The woman who was recording the video can be heard telling another who went to alert hospital authorities, “He went Casualty and they discharge (sic) him — and the security and them come and bring him and put him here. They ‘gloves up’ and they bring him and rest him here, and the man sick.”
(‘Casualty’ is how Trinidadians typically refer to the hospital's Accident and Emergency department).
Towards the end of the video, the woman confirms that hospital security said he was discharged and the only way for him to be readmitted to A&E was for an ambulance to bring him, which she described as “madness”; she also said that guards told her she couldn't record any footage. For much of the video, the man, who said his name was <PERSON>, shifted restlessly on the ground.
As soon as the video started to make the rounds on social media, netizens expressed their sadness and dismay. On the Ministry of Health's Facebook page, <PERSON> posted:
I'd like to lodge a complaint on behalf of the elderly gentleman who died on the lawn of the POSGH, Mr. <PERSON>. […] I could not sleep last night thinking about how this man was left to die in the grass on the compound of one of our major health institutions. Please do not let this be another ‘investigation’ which comes to nothing because the next tragic incident has taken away focus. What happened to Mr. <PERSON> is inhumane and what looks like a cover up is extremely disturbing.
?? Mr. 957
Minister, I implore you.
The North West Regional Health Authority, which oversees the functioning of the hospital, issued a press release stating that a full investigation has been launched into the matter and that “preliminary reports indicate that Mr <PERSON> was brought into the hospital yesterday evening via ambulance and was seen at the Accident and Emergency Department”:
He was treated following all protocols of care and was later discharged.
Subsequently, Mr <PERSON> was seen lying on the floor outside the department and was assisted by members of staff back into the department to be seen a second time. Mr <PERSON> then left on his own accord. His body was later discovered on the front lawn of the hospital’s compound.
This statement contradicts other eyewitness accounts, which allege that Mr. <PERSON> was escorted out by security.
In parliament, Minister <PERSON>'s position was that officials at the North West Regional Health Authority were not culpable in <PERSON>'s death.
He said:
Officials cannot detain someone and constrain someone and treat them without their consent. The health authorities, the doc­tors and nurses, treated Mr. <PERSON> twice on the same day. Mr. <PERSON> disappeared on his own volition. There is no guilt, there is no process to be fixed…all protocols were followed and he received the best of treatment. But he disappeared twice after being told to wait.
Independent journalist <PERSON> asked on Facebook:
So, if an elderly patient has dementia and insists on discharging himself from the Accident and Emergency Unit, the ‘protocol’ permits this? I once had a friend who was being treated for mental illness who more than once attempted to check himself out. There appeared to be some kind of protocol to keep him on the ward even against his will.
<PERSON>, who is not particularly confident in any of the country's public health facilities, observed:
Not sure what he's like in his private life, but Minister <PERSON> does not do compassion well. He bristles up like a frizzle fowl in crises when he should be showing empathy.
Facebook user <PERSON> added:
I am not surprised that the initial response to the guy who died outside the POSGH is “no one at the hospital is to blame”. 600