Stephanie Elliott, Gleaner Writer
MAY PEN, Clarendon:
SEVENTY-TWO-year-old Naomi Ramdani of Content District, Osbourne Store, Clarendon, has not had time to mourn 10-month-old Patrick Whorrie who was killed in a car accident about a month ago. Mrs. Ramdani, who was also in the vehicle when it crashed, has still not recovered from life-threatening injuries she sustained.
On Saturday, May 27, exactly a month after the crash, Mrs. Ramdani lay huddled on a stretcher. Her frail body riddled with pain with a gaping hole in her abdomen caused by an incision made by doctors at the May Pen, Hospital.
Mrs. Ramdani was officially discharged from the hospital on May 26, despite her and her relatives insisting that she was in no condition to go home. The incision which runs from below her breast unto her navel is wide gaping open and with the dressing removed, some of her internal organs are clearly visible.
She told The Gleaner that she was discharged from hospital 11 days after the operation, but noticed that the wound appeared infected. She returned to the hospital on May 22 and was readmitted and the wound reopened. However, she said that doctors have not replaced the stitches that had been removed. She remained in the May Pen Hospital up to Friday, May 26. However, she said she was told by doctors that she would be sent home.
"I don't think I am fit to leave this hospital," she said.
However, her relatives were summoned to take her home, but on seeing her condition, have insisted that she was not well enough to leave the hospital. Her niece, Pauline Bauchan, said that they are incapable of caring for her now. "We have no medical experience, how can we care for her with an open cut?" she questioned. Despite relatives protest, she found herself on the outside of the hospital.
Faced with no alternatives, the relatives say that they are forced to take the ailing woman to the Mandeville Regional Hospital where they hope she will be admitted. Mrs. Ramdani says that having lived to a good old age and having returned from London to Jamaica, after 43 years, she did not expect that she would be treated in this manner. "No way would I be treated like this in London," she insisted. "May Pen Hospital is not any good," she added.
Husband Cecil Ramdani said the Mandeville Regional Hospital was contacted by telephone but they were told to take his wife in on Monday. He said, however, that she has since been seen by a private medical doctor and given medication.
