BRAIN DAMAGE

Meenawattie Cuffy, 35, with her son, Renaldo
Meenawattie Cuffy, 35, with her son, Renaldo

UPDATE:

RENALDO CUFFY is three years old, brain-damaged and will be bedridden for the rest of his life: a life of pain and discomfort, having to both breathe and be fed through tubes.
Renaldo was born healthy but according to a lawsuit filed in the High Court against the North-Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA), he was taken to the hospital by his parents to be treated for a hacking cough. He left the hospital a “human vegetable.”

Mother Meenawattie Cuffy, 34, of Arima sued the NCRHA for negligence and the case yesterday came up before Justice Robin Mohammed in a Case Management Conference. On February 21, 2017, the lawsuit explains, Renaldo had a cough and Cuffy took him to the Mt Hope hospital, where he was attended to at the paediatric ward. The lawsuit said the child was about two at the time.

Renaldo was kept on the ward until the following day and the lawsuit that during that time, he was put on a ventilator and an endotracheal tube (ETT) inserted in his airway to help the child breathe. Then something terrible happened to him.

The lawsuit said a specialist paediatric doctor confirmed that the ETT became dislodged inadvertently while a member of the medical staff on the ward was tidying Renaldo. The result was that the oxygen level was reduced and Renaldo suffered what has been medically described in the lawsuit as global hypoxic brain injury.

A medical report tendered in Cuffy’s lawsuit said doctors immediately inserted another ETT which allowed Renaldo to breathe properly.
However, by that time, the child suffered cardiac arrest. Renaldo was taken out of the hospital after doctors could do no more for him.
He suffered such extensive brain damage, his parents claimed, that he cannot do anything for himself.

Cuffy submitted a medical analysis report of her son’s condition in which Dr Peter Poon-King said the child needs care on an hourly basis. He has to be fed through a tube and his airway has to be suctioned often. He listed Renaldo’s disability as permanent, with no hope of reversing the brain damage.

Renaldo has to be held up constantly, when he is not asleep. He gazes about but lacks the ability to appreciate what is happening around him. Cuffy said she and her husband Alton, 45, take turns attending to their son, and owing to the care he needs, they have had to give up their jobs.
He is their only child together and in the lawsuit, she said they both stay at home every day to look after Renaldo. “Sometimes, Alton works PH taxi to keep things going,” Cuffy said in her lawsuit. The family is suing for negligence and compensation, having to pay a therapist every month and outfit the child with an ETT quite often to keep him breathing.

He is fed via a tube inserted in his stomach. The family said too that they must soon build their son his own room and buy him a medical mattress as well as a hospital bed.

ORIGINAL STORY:

RENALDO CUFFY is three years old, brain-damaged and will be bedridden for the rest of his life: a life of pain and discomfort, having to both breathe and be fed through tubes.

Renaldo was born healthy but according to a lawsuit filed in the High Court against the North-Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA), he was taken to the hospital by his parents to be treated for a hacking cough. He left the hospital a "human vegetable."

Mother Meenawattie Cuffy, 34, of Arima sued the NCRHA for negligence and the case yesterday came up before Justice Robin Mohammed in a Case Management Conference. On February 21, 2017, the lawsuit explains, Renaldo had a cough and Cuffy took him to the Mt Hope hospital, where he was attended to at the paediatric ward. The lawsuit said the child was about two at the time.

Renaldo was kept on the ward until the following day and the lawsuit that during that time, he was put on a ventilator and an endotracheal tube (ETT) inserted in his airway to help the child breathe. Then something terrible happened to him.

The lawsuit said a specialist paediatric doctor confirmed that the ETT became dislodged inadvertently while a member of the medical staff on the ward was tidying Renaldo. The result was that the oxygen level was reduced and Renaldo suffered what has been medically described in the lawsuit as global hypoxic brain injury.

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