Hospital paid family but denies blame for death
It has been over three weeks since a trio of patients at the K.H.M.H. were given transfusions of HIV infected blood, but authorities either cannot or will not announce their conclusion as to exactly how the tragedy occurred or who is to blame. However, the hospital’s chief executive officer did respond today to allegations of one patient’s family that the hospital acted irresponsibly at virtually every point in the process. Andy Myers Jr. was a two month old baby brought in to the K.H.M.H. with a serious skin condition and was transfused with the tainted blood as part of his treatment. Less than a week later he died. But doctors said that his death was as a result of his initial condition and had nothing to do with the bad blood. The infant’s father, Andy Myers Senior of Gales Point, has disputed this account and blames the transfusion for his son’s death. According to Myers, if the hospital was not responsible, why did they give him money to bury the child?
Dr. Alvaro Rosado, CEO, K.H.M.H.
“When the hospital was first informed of the incident, the minister, the chairman of the board and the directors were informed. We all agreed that the number one priority was the welfare of the patient and the families. So we immediately put into effect a system to take care of them. We gathered counsellors and decided on how we’d approach the patients and the people affected. By 4:00 p.m. that afternoon, we had our teams together, patients were contacted, informed and counselled. The Myers were not available. According to the counsellor, they could not find them in the ward and since they do not live in Belize City, they were not seen until the following morning, that was Wednesday. About 8:15 a.m. that Wednesday, the counsellors reported to me that they had contacted all three patients and now have the request from the patients. The adult requested assistance with counselling and medication, the parents of one of the children asked for the same assistance. Both expressed that they were not interested in going into legal matters, but that they needed the assistance.”
“The request from the Myers was very specific. They wanted assistance for the burial of the child when the child died. The reaction to that was whatever we can assist them with, we will. The counsellors were so informed. They went back to all three and said the hospital has agreed to assist you with your request, so the Myers requested assistance. When the child died the Myers came to us and said it’s going to be two thousand dollars for the funeral expenses. On questioning why it was two thousand dollars, I was informed that they had to hire buses because they lived outside of the city and they had to take family and friends to the funeral of the two month old baby.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Where did the baby bury?”
Dr. Alvaro Rosado
“I’m not at liberty to state where they’re from, only that they’re not from Belize City. That’s information we got and we arranged for buses to take people out for the funeral.”
“Between the Myers and K.H.M.H. there were no further discussion of financial assistance, except that later that Wednesday evening Mr. Myers returned and said he would take two weeks off work and wanted the hospital to pay his salary. He was refused and was informed that the hospital was trying to help with his expenses and not to give him a salary or anything of the sort, and at that time Mr. Myers became very upset.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Did Mr. Myers say anything about suing the hospital?”
Dr. Alvaro Rosado
“K.H.M.H. has not been informed about any suit officially. I did say that Mr. Myers requested further financial assistance in the way of a salary for, according to him in the first instance, for two weeks. When that was denied, I believe he did say something about suing the hospital at that time, but we have not been informed about any suit that has been taken against the hospital.”
Another allegation made by the Myers family was that their late two month old baby was given the entire bag of infected blood, which then raised the question of how the two other patients could have also been infected. Attending paediatrician was Dr. Guillermo Echevarria, of the Southern Regional Hospital, as Dr. Victor Rosado, K.H.M.H. paediatrician, was on leave. Rosado today told News 5 that it is not possible to give a baby that age so much blood, and that Myers was most likely confused by what he saw.
Dr. Victor Rosado, Paediatrician, K.H.M.H.
“The definition of a bag of blood is a unit of blood, which is five hundred CCs. There’s no way you can possibly give a two month old baby five hundred CCs of blood. He was given approximately thirty CCs, which is less than ten percent of a bag of blood. Obviously that blood has to be placed in a container, which is a bag the same size, and it would appear, when the transfusion is finished, that the bag is empty. But in effect he was given thirty CCs in a separate bag of blood.”
Baby Andy Myers Jr. was buried at Gales Point, Manatee. According to the Ministry of Health, their investigation into the entire incident is ongoing.
