Doctors trade accusations over patient?s eye loss

The Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital is no stranger to controversy. By the very nature of the life and death decisions made there, it would be a miracle if things always proceeded without incident. As for the latest allegations, like others in the past, they involve institutional negligence. Today the K.H.M.H. and a well known doctor responded to the accusations levelled by a patient, who claims that, due to the hospital’s bad decisions, he has lost one of his eyes.

Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
On the evening of Saturday, July first, twenty-nine year old Javier Herrron was tending to his motorcycle when a fragment of the chisel he was using broke and lodged in his left eye. The following day Heron?s family took him to the clinic of Dr. Amin Hegar in Belize City. According to the ophthalmologist, when he saw Herron around two thirty on Sunday afternoon an infection had already set in but the patient still had some vision. That point he believes the eye could have been saved, however, it was an emergency case that needed immediate surgery.

Dr. Amin Hegar, Ophthalmologist
?At that point his eyes were open, he was seeing and counting fingers about two feet, but he was seeing. An infection had begun, to be frankly, and like most patients when they come the infection begins. He had had the problem like the day before so the infection had started.?

Hegar says he informed Heron that he needed to go to the operating theatre to remove the metal chip that was causing the infection.

Dr. Amin Hegar
?Because he had the foreign body lodged in the cornea of the eye. The cornea is where the black part of the eye is. It had the metallic foreign body, but it is more inside. It had penetrated actually but it did not totally go in. So I thought that I could actually use a small little forceps and get it out at the operating theatre with the help of a nurse and so on.?

?He even asked me if I would be able to regain my vision. And I said, Javier most of the patients I see the vast majority almost everybody regain all their vision. He was not blind at that point. And they do well if they remove the foreign body which is the cause of the infection, which is the main factor that is causing the infection. Then I started with antibiotics immediately, inject antibiotics onto the eye to preserve his vision and regain back the little vision he had lost.?

However the family could not afford the private medical care and was advised to go to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital where lower cost emergency eye care is available.

Dr. Amin Hegar
?I gave him a note to the emergency room saying that this patient had to be seen by the ophthalmologist on call as soon as possible.?

Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
?Did the note as well refer to the foreign object lodged in his eye??

Dr. Amin Hegar
?Yes, I said there was a foreign body and it had to be treated as soon as possible.?

The family decided to go to the K.H.M.H. where they were told another ophthalmologist Dr. David Hoy was working on contract and would be on call. Mona Lisa Mangar said she rushed her brother to the K.H.M.H. and they arrived at the hospital around three that Sunday evening but the staff on duty were not able to reach Dr. Hoy by phone until about an hour later; around four ?clock.

Mona Lisa Manger, Sister of Eye Patient
?But when I went in, Doctor Carrillo tried to get Dr. Hoy over the phone, but he did not answer his phone. Eventually he answered the phone and that?s when Doctor Hoy prescribed medication over the phone.?

?I believe if he had come at the time or if he had come at least five minutes I would be satisfied that nothing could have been done. But I mean he did not come and that is what is bothering me and that is why I believe it is negligence.?

Georgia Herron, Wife
?I did not expect all of this to happen. I just thought that they would have taken out the foreign object, apply antibiotics and my husband would be seeing again. That with time probably where they took out the metal that would heal and everything would be fine again. I did not expect this. I came and found out all of this it?s just a blow to me.?

Javier Herron, Patient
?I never expected that. I was seeing properly when I came. And I came straight to the authorities to be dealt with. I was seeing from my eye properly. I wanted to focus proper attention, and I want it to be like I was before.?

Mangar says it was not until some eighteen hours later that her brother was finally wheeled into the operating theatre. But by then she said the infection was so severe that her brother could no longer see through the eye. Today the K.H.M.H. management team along with Dr. Hoy sat down with the press to answer the allegations made by the Herron family.

Dr. Alvaro Rosado, C.E.O., K.H.M.H.
?The family has charged that they had to wait an extra long time at emergency. Two that if the specialist had come to see the patient physically the eye could have been saved, and three that the specialist did not give the family and the patient enough information about what he was doing.?

According to Dr. Hoy the family waited some twenty two hours before they sought medical attention and by that time there was nothing that could have been done to save their brother?s eye. Hoy said he is appalled at the comments made by Dr. Hegar and charge that Hegar gave the family false hope.

Dr. David Hoy, Ophthalmologist
?If I knew that Dr. Hegar had seen that patient before, I tell you what I would have done: I would have called Dr. Hegar and tell him you sent me a hot potato with a dagger my friend. And you don?t do that to a colleague, because you know fully well that you can?t save that person?s eye. What made it worse is that he told the family that if Karl Heusner did not take care of you come back to us and I would have done it free of charge. I was amazed at something like that. So it has been disaster after disaster, starting from a very unfortunate incident and a man fixing a motorcycle without goggles on to where we are today.?

Dr. Amin Hegar
?Definitely not! I have experience in treating eye infections and foreign bodies. Many patients come here, sometimes two, three days after, but at that point when I saw him and it was sent to the hospital, he went to the hospital within one hour. At that point the patient was seeing yet, maybe he would not have recovered all his vision, but definitely I would never expect to remove the eye.?

Dr. Hoy says when he saw the patient for the first time on Monday morning he was not encouraged by what he observed.

Dr. David Hoy
?This is an eye I have to take out and I better take it out fast. But I am dealing with a family that has been told that if I had done it yesterday the eye would have been saved. I am in a dilemma. So I take out my tape as I normally do for every surgery and I say I cannot, it is going to go bad and it is impossible.?

Additionally Hoy says because Herron was recovering from a brain injury he had sustained in a traffic accident eight months ago it may have complicated matters to further threatened his life.

Dr. David Hoy
?For Dr. Hegar to be giving false hope to these people, who are already sad and already have had all kind of things happen to Javier from December. I feel sadden that somebody a colleague of mine could tell another patient that he is going to save the eye.?

Mangar, who was present at the press briefing, says she is not satisfied with Dr. Hoy?s explanations.

Mona Lisa Mangar
?I believe the questions that were asked he did not answer them specifically. He elaborated on other things, and he kept on saying other things instead of being specific about the questions that were asked.?

?If he had come in on Sunday and see him at the time he was called out, then he would have seen a big difference from Sunday until Monday ten or after nine when he saw him. Because Javier was not the first patient that he saw.?

Mangar says she is considering legal action to compensate her brother for his loss of vision.

K.H.M.H. C.E.O. Dr. Alvaro Rosado says that the staff responded to the best of its ability and was not in any way negligent.