RHAS and Sherrane Samuels Death

Parliamentary clerk Sheranne Samuel, 34, died on September 22 after being admitted to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital with a massive headache and no access to a CT scan machine for 19 hours. Samuel reportedly died due to a massive clot in her brain.

A senior doctor in the RHA has since made the explosive claim that Sheranne’s fate is the norm and not an aberration and that one person dies weekly in public health care due to the shortage of CT scan machines in the hospitals.

The CEOs of two of the five RHAs have categorically denied this claim as well as any culpability regarding Samuel’s death. An independent observer has also spoken of repeated thefts and repeated sabotage of equipment and drugs at the RHAs. The truth lies somewhere in between.

Testimony of a senior physician employed by an RHA:

“Sheranne Samuel, a fit young woman, was taken to the SWRHA ICU with a headache and suspected infection to the brain.

There was a delay of 19 hours from the time she presented to the time she got a CT scan in a private hospital.

“If the cause of death was a blood clot following a massive stroke, a timely CT scan could have saved her life in what we call the golden hour with surgery or other interventions. That hour passed. There is a chance she could have died anyway as claimed by the RHA, but the delayed scan significantly reduced the odds for her.

“After a brain ischemic stroke (reportedly what Sheranne had) with each minute the brain starved of oxygen, brain cells neurons are lost.

“Each hour a stroke not treated, the brain loses as many cells in 3.6 years of normal ageing, which is why young people who get strokes tend to die. That anyone waited for 19 hours after presenting with a stroke for a precise CT diagnosis is unforgivable.

All physicians know that for the management of strokes ‘Time is brain quantified.’ “The RHAs go by the letter. The press release sent out after her death, claiming that ‘Ms Samuel was appropriately medically managed from the time of arrival’ to the emergency department in POS General hospital until her unfortunate passing’ is legally correct.

As far as the RHA is concerned, they are covered, and the patient was treated ‘appropriately.’ “What the PR didn’t say was that when doctors request a CT scan, they don’t specify a time as we know even with emergencies, it could take an hour or two days.

Every week, patients die waiting for scans in the brain, chest and abdomen.

“When COVID started the primary health care system in all departments went on the back burner.

“The volume of patients has increased in emergency rooms, and all departments from orthopaedics to paediatrics with the added burden of potential COVID patients, so patients care is compromised.

“Staff was taken from multiple departments and redirected to COVID units to have fully functioning parallel health care system.

COVID units are at breaking point but not tipped over yet.

“We need more than one CT machine in hospitals, catheters, more equipment for interventional medicine to remove clots, manage strokes, and heart disease. San Fernando (SWRHA) CT scan, for example, serves 650,000 people.

“With social distancing rules and a higher volume of patients, doctors are burnt out. Staff is routinely working 30-36 hours or more after shifts due to the increased workload and reduction of staffing.