Baby dies … while doctors point fingers
On Friday we brought you the story of two year old Kimora Leslie, the Belize City child was badly in need of a life-saving surgery. It was an operation that never did take place and early on Saturday morning Kimora died. But the little girl’s death has sparked a storm of controversy. According to Shawn Lemoth, Kimora’s grandmother, things took a bad turn on Friday evening.
Shawn Lemoth, Kimora?s Grandmother
?I feel her left side?her left leg and her arm began getting stiff and I tried to induce C.P.R. and massage her and take out the stiffness out of her and I feel her heart beating a little bit. Just like if you take a straw and push it up, I feel her heart beating. I was crying through the streets and I tell my daughter, take her to the emergency, take her to the emergency. And when she took her to the emergency, well she revived a little because when I went there, she talked, she told me the drip hurt and the oxygen that she was getting she was pulling it out of her nose. Well I feel good because that is the baby I know. And so I kiss her up and tell her I am going home to do something. I reach home and fifteen minutes after I got a phone call that Kimora suffered another heart attack. So when we went back to the emergency department I saw Dr. Lara come in and he was attending to the baby. He tek a syringe and try to pull an amount of fluid that was right in her head and he pull it out and the fluid come out very clear, not infected. No infection she didn?t have, the fluid come out clear and everything and we talked to him and he said that dah weh he tek out. Now, he was ready to rush Kimora to the operating theatre to do the surgery, but when we call the C.E.O. of the hospital about the shunt, he sent the shunt. But when Dr. Lara got the shunt the shunt couldn?t work because Kimora Leslie needs medium pressure and the shunt is low pressure. So we went back to square one again, no shunt, Kimora is critically ill, no surgery can?t be done, they don?t have the equipment to use on her. So, she was admitted to paediatric ward on life support and she passed away three forty-five Saturday morning.?
Kendra Griffith
?Do you think there is any one person to blame for this or does the blame lies on several persons?
Shawn Lemoth
?Well to me, I would say the blame cannot be laid on one person, because maybe the administration from Karl Heusner, they should know what all they need to keep in a hospital to help people who are sick, they are the administration, they are the ones who ordered the equipment that is used in the hospital, so they should know what they need. So I am blaming a part on that and the next part I am blaming on the doctors because they make oath to save life, so they should try their best. But again, they cannot work without the equipment and things that they need, you understand.?
This afternoon the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital Authority called a press conference to offer their side of the story. According to the K.H.M.H.A., they did all they could for little Kimora and believe that her death could have been prevented if Doctors Joel Cervantes and Giovanni Lara had taken a different attitude.
Dr. Alvaro Rosado, C.E.O., Karl Heusner Memorial
?K.H.M.H. was in the forefront, we were going to buy the shunt, we offered the theatre, we offered everything, come in here and do it right away, anytime. … When we were informed of the situation, the Ministry of Health indicated that they had discussed the matter with Dr. Lara, and Dr. Lara had informed them that the only shunt available was at the Loma Luz Hospital at the cost of twelve hundred dollars. K.H.M.H. immediately informed the Ministry of Health that we would pay for shunt. But at the same time, we were looking for one shunt here. At no time, up to now, we were ever informed by Dr. Lara specifically of the availability of any shunt anywhere else except Loma Luz for twelve hundred dollars.?
Israel Marin, Chairman, K.H.M.H. Authority
?If Dr. Lara was in place when he should have been, if Dr. Cervantes was covering for Dr. Lara when he should have been we wouldn?t have had this problem. But because they were not here because we did not accept the contract that they put in place, because we were in process of doing some things different to be able to continue offering the services, we had this unfortunate situation.?
?These guys put us against the wall. You either sign these contracts or we are not coming back, and that?s what they did … and someone has died in the process. Their oath to save lives wasn?t important, what was important was the contract, so this is what we have here today.?
Dr. Curtis Samuels, Medical Chief of Staff
?The first conflict we had in November with the neuron surgeons, I pleaded with them do not stop neurosurgical services, continue negotiating. Because I told them I believe the board of directors is willing to sit down and negotiate, the points that you?ve bring up are valid but please do not stop neurosurgical services. My voice went unheard. They stopped neurosurgical services and what occurred was close to a fiasco in that we had a case presented here at the K.H.M.H. without neurosurgeon coverage.?
Speaking prior to the press conference, Dr. Joel Cervantes says that he just got involved in the case last week Thursday, but it is symptomatic of long festering problems at the K.H.M.H. He denies the hospital’s accusations.
Dr. Joel Cervantes, Nuerosurgeon
?They are totally false, I am more than a hundred percent sure that he cannot prove what he is saying and I would ask him to think about what he is accusing me of because it?s not just what I say or you say or a game of coming back and forth, it is what you should prove in a reasonable fashion without any reasonable doubt and what he is accusing me of is totally untrue. But even at this stage, I am totally willing to meet with him and the other authorities, whoever they have to be and try to iron out this very difficult situation.?
?We must absolutely avoid anything else in this sense of this happening again. And just by having the basic materials at hand and to have dialogue between the doctors in each specific area that do their work and the administration of the K.H.M.H. Authority and perhaps even the Ministry of Health with the health professionals who provide these services. And it?s not only doctors, it?s also to have dialogue with the nurses and the technicians and everybody who makes up the health system as such.?
?Even though this has reached a scandalous moment as such, both myself, Dr. Cervantes, and Dr. Lara we are still waiting and we?re still willing to sit down with the administration at the K.H.M.H., with the KHMH Authority, and if it?s necessary with the Ministry of Health or a team of officials from the Ministry of Health to pinpoint our side of the story, because we?ve never been heard and to reach a reasonable solution so we can get back to the hospital as soon as possible to give our services. ?
Cervantes’s contract ended on March thirty-first and he chose not to renew it, while Dr. Giovanni Lara tendered his resignation today. Cervantes says that the K.H.M.H. never did enter into serious negotiations with the two doctors.
Rosado says that the board is currently trying to work out something with Universal Health Services to have emergency cases transferred there. In the meantime, they are actively seeking replacements for the neurosurgeons.
The funeral of Kimora Leslie has been set for Wednesday at the Port Loyola Baptist Church at two in the afternoon.
