Doctor speaks about infection at K.H.M.H.
Marco Tulio Mendez
As parents grieve the painful deaths of their loved ones, the public is outraged that the growing number of deaths could have gone unnoticed at the national referral hospital. This afternoon, COLA issued a very strong statement on the neonatal deaths, while the office of the Special Envoy, Kim Simplis Barrow said that it will be spearheading the construction of a suitable Paediatric and Neonatal Intensive Unit at the K.H.M.H. But the lingering question is who should be held responsible for the death of the babies? This afternoon, Pediatrician Doctor Marco-Tulio Mendez who has been flagging hospital malpractices up north called out the Minister of Health, Pablo Marin, asking for his resignation.
Via Phone: Dr. Marco Tulio Mendez, Pediatrician
“I’m pretty sure that the ministry of health knew about it and if they knew about it, they are the ones that are supposed to be held accountable; they are the ones that supposed to be guiding and establishing and implementing the guidelines for the hospital. I mean the Karl Heusner Hospital is our referral hospital, it is the flagship of our entire health system and it should be well protected and all the measures to decrease this type of nosocomial infections supposed to be done. Now, there is something that is very important is that this problem is a complex problem. It is not solely at the hospital level. It is a very repulsive situation that has occurred and the Minister of Health…to me the Minister of Health needs to resign. Not only this problem we have been facing, but also the problem up here in the north; at the northern regional hospital. They said that they would do an investigation. Up to now we don’t know what went on. They didn’t went in depth of the problem that our pregnant mothers and women went through just about six month ago. I am pretty sure that I do not know if this investigation will help.”
Dr. Mendez also says that the number of premature babies has increased in the past four years.
Dr. Mendez is my hero for speaking out bravely and honestly, LET’S ALL SUPPORT HIM.
If Marin didn’t know about the problem before it was exposed in the press, he is incompetent [well, he’s incompetent in any case] and negligent, asleep at the wheel, just waiting to hit an iceberg. If he knew about it and did nothing urgent, he is probably an accomplice to manslaughter. Is that who we want running our life-and-death Ministry of Health?
When will our activist groups and organizations move from making “very strong statements” to actually getting up and taking action to see that people are held accountable for their actions and/or inactions?
Belizeans need a strong group of people to rise up and lead them to action. Someone needs to lead the charge and maybe the rest will follow. Let us stop living up to our reputation of complacency.
@bzeanrebel, you’re right.
Where is our Dr. Martin Luther King, or our Ghandi, or Nelson Mandela, or any of the other great historic leaders who stepped forward with the power of truth and morality on their side, to overthrow the oppressive institutions of the past? College students around the world, even in Red China at Tianamen Square in 1989, have had the courage and passion to protest and change the world — but not in the Jewel.
Has a colonial servant mentality overwhelmed our national DNA?