November 23, 2024

Around the Regions

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Hospital forgot to tell man he was COVID positive.

The Region Ten COVID Hospital

THE AUTHORITIES OF THE LINDEN HOSPITAL COMPLEX (LHC) FORGOT to tell
Kenneth Blounte he had corona virus. It took them three days to realise their error but by then
the scythe of death had started mowing down his life.
“My Husband didn’t have to die! He didn’t have to die,” wailed his disconsolate wife, Geeta
Bisnauth.
“But it shows that in this country, the health system is very poor and messed up. This all started
at the Linden Hospital Complex (LHC). Had they done their job correctly initially, it might have
been corrected,” a sobbing Bisnauth said in an exclusive interview with
www.aroundtheregion.com.
Bisnauth recalled her husband was feeling ill and they saw private physician, Dr Micheal Marks,
who advised taking him to the LHC for a test.
They visited the LHC on May 26, Independence Day in Guyana. There, he was given saline,
oxygen and some antibiotics. He also underwent the COVID-19 test.
The LHC specialist prescribed some OTC medications and discharged Mr. Blounte without
revealing his COVID status.
“They (Doctors) didn’t inform him that he was COVID positive. They said nothing other than
giving him the prescription to buy some medication. He came home and within the next two days
he got worst to the point where he was unable to breathe properly,” the man’s wife recalled.
“They had called a day or two before asking for some information so I called the number that
showed up on our phone informing them about what was happening. I was upset as I told them
that this man did the COVID test and no one has sought to tell me or him if he is positive or
negative and it is then that they said ‘oh he is positive’” the outraged wife remembered.

Said Bisnauth: “They had a responsibility to inform him that he was positive as we would have
isolated him and treated him but they waited until the 28 th to tell us after I ask if he is COVID
positive.”
After that, she, her 17-year-old daughter, and two grandsons tested positive but beat the deadly
virus. She is grateful they were alive.
Blounte and Bisnauth were together for 20 years, but married seven years ago.
Mr. Blounte was a patient at the Wismar COVID Hospital for 10 days but was later transferred to
the Infectious Diseases Hospital at Liliendaal on the East Coast, based on advise from Dr. Mark
who felt the level of care and attention there was superior.
But Bisnauth’s female instincts thought otherwise.
“Dr. MIcheal Marks said that he is going to transfer my husband to Liliendaal, and I said Dr. Mark
don’t send my husband there, please keep him at Wismar for a few more days. But his words to
me were that he was sending him there because he wants betterment for him. He and my husband
are friends and he was transferred. He had no problem or issues whatsoever the first week at
Liliendaal but the second week is when all the problems started,” she recalled.
The grieving, hurting wife and mother is peeved at the absence of justice for persons who
continue to suffer in an unfair way in Guyana through medical errors. Blounte, she said will
never get a chance to share in the results of his daughter’s Caribbean Secondary Education
Certificate (CSEC) tests offered by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) or even share in
her wedding.
“Kenneth has been removed from our lives forever. This isn’t fair. If things were different,
I could have understood, but somebody has to give us answers for this,’ a tearful Bisnauth
declared.