Prison superintendent speaks on Seguro case
It was a report that touched the nation when it first hit the airwaves less than two weeks ago…and shocked viewers last night when it was revealed that a prisoner at Hattieville, pardoned due to his impending death from AIDS, apparently doesn’t have the disease after all. Yesterday I visited the free but suffering man at his home in Burrell Boom. Today I traveled to Hattieville to see how this tragedy unfolded.
Carlos Seguro arrived at Hattieville Prison on August fourteenth, 1995, on burglary charges. But six months into his sentence he became very ill and started loosing weight.
Bernard Adolphus, Superintendent of Prisons
“When a man cannot, is lazy to get up in the morning, cannot eat, doesn’t want to eat and hair start dropping out and throat swollen, the glands and what have you and stools here and there, we look at him and we thought it was best to take him to the hospital.”
According to Adolphus, Seguro was taken to Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where he took several blood tests. The tests revealed that Seguro was not suffering from any sexually transmitted diseases.
Bernard Adolphus
“V.D.R.L.: non reactive. V.D.R.L. means that he had no venereal disease, that is one that is what the scientific thing said and at some other point said non – reactive also and one set positive. I can recall V.D.R.L., I can recall that because that is usually the first one we look at. HIV, it may have said HIV non -reactive. I would have to go back to the records to check that.”
When we asked Adolphus if we could get a look at Seguro’s medical records, he said he would not oblige us with the request and said he preferred if we got it from the medical authorities. When we asked Burrell Boom nurse Anna Quiros about those records, she reported that authorities told her clearly that the HIV test was negative.
Anna Quiros, Nurse, Burrell Boom
“They go to the prison every Friday and she told me that Carlos has a medical file up at the prison in it, with the AIDS results in it that he was negative. I don’t know where Mr. Adolphus got that Carlos has AIDS. I don’t know where it came from.”
Seguro’s condition meanwhile, continued to deteriorate behind the walls of the Tango Three cell block.
Bernard Adolphus
“I mean you can’t continue to tolerate that with a 120 men. He is moving from one building to another building. Nobody wants him. So we had to secure him in another area and we keep on observing him ?til he stop eating completely.”
That’s when Adolphus said Seguro was taken back to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital for another check up and was tended to by one Dr. Richard D’Estrada.
Bernard Adolphus
“The doctor then presented us with report about what this man has. HIV positive and something here about malnutrition.”
The report dated January 12th, 1998 and signed by D’Estrada, a medical officer with the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, states and we quote: “To whom it may concern. This is a twenty five year old patient who has a history of HIV positive and malnutrition conditions for which we strongly recommend this patient not to be in prison due to the risk that he carries for his mates and for his own health which will definitely deteriorate with the passage of months. Any help will be appreciated.” It was this report that Adolphus said he relied on and made all necessary arrangements to have Seguro discharged. Seguro was then pardoned by the Belize Advisory Council and released on February sixth. But since his discharge disturbing reports about Seguro’s illness have surfaced. While D’Estrada’s memo to the prison states that the inmate is HIV positive, the report is contrary to statements by the medical staff at the S.T.D. Clinic. They say that sometime in late 1996 and early 1997, they tested Seguro for AIDS and that test was negative. Nurse Williams and Dr. George Carr, who run the clinic at Matron Roberts Health Centre, make regular visits to the prison to treat inmates with STD?s. When we asked the Superintendent of Prisons Bernard Adolphus if at anytime Carr or Williams discussed Seguro’s health condition with him, this is what he had to say.
Bernard Adolphus
“Kidneys is one, kidney problems is one, diabetes is one and the possibility, I think I recall. You see this is what may get me in trouble again, this will get me in trouble again. Anyway I will stick to one gun, one gun I am going to stick to. Based on this report that was given to me by the doctor, I acted. So I will not tie up myself with any other questions. Based on this, a medical doctor, I am not a medical doctor; I am not a witch doctor. This doctor who works at Karl Heusner Hospital said that the patient is or has a history of HIV positive and based on this I submitted a report to the advisory council.”
But while Adolphus has managed to come forward with the proof as to why he said on national television that Seguro is HIV positive, it looks like someone blundered in the medical department. While today, both George Carr and Nurse Williams told us that they were unavailable for comment, on Monday afternoon, nurse Williams emphatically stated that Carlos Seguro is not HIV positive or has AIDS, and she does not know where Adolphus may have gotten that information from. The story gets even more interesting when sources at Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital told us that no where in Seguro’s medical records, is it indicated that the patient has HIV, or AIDS, only that he was treated for vomiting and the swelling of his feet. Meanwhile our attempts to reach Dr. Richard D’Estrada, the man who made the AIDS diagnosis, have been unsuccessful. The hospital administration did tell us, however, that they would be looking into the case. They also told us that Seguro has some psychological problems and it has been difficult giving him treatment.
Anna Quiros
“He is having psychological problems and ahm, he said that he should be treated for that also before they can really get down to the other problem because he is not cooperating with us at all.”
Q: “You no want go back to the hospital?”
Carlos Seguro
“No because they will ill treat me there only. Miss I want them to take something out of me. I feel it. ah ah ah. Miss I feel it. I got something inside of me, to God.”
But for Carlos Seguro, time may be short. In a letter addressed to Chief Justice George Singh earlier this year, from his cell Seguro wrote: “I fear this illness will kill me, if I don’t get proper treatment for it. The doctors don’t tell me what is wrong with me and neither do they keep me in the hospital. They send me back here where I have no help with my illness. I don’t know how I am still alive, and I fear I may soon die.”
Our efforts to interview Dr. Richard D’Estrada, the Cuban doctor who wrote the report to Adolphus, were unsuccessful, as he was reported to be busy in surgery at Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Meanwhile nurse Anna Quiros is making a public appeal for contributions to help with the care of Carlos Seguro. Items needed are cleaning supplies, disposable undergarments and soft food like soup and rice. She can be contacted at the Burrell Boom Health Clinic.
