Who’s to blame?

THE family of Kadeem (Sunil) Murray, 22, who died from heart failure on Tuesday at the Sangre Grande hospital, is questioning whether doctors followed the correct procedures, which could have saved his life.

Murray, who had heart surgery last June, was taken to the hospital with severe vomiting and diarrhoea.

He was sent back home twice, after being given tablets on the first occasion for the diarrhoea, and three injections the second time.

When Murray’s condition worsened, he was taken a third time to the hospital, where defibrillation was done on his heart, but he never regained consciousness. He died at around 2 am the next day.

His mother, Gayle Hicks-Murray, said he became ill last week Thursday.

“I took him to the hospital where he was seen by a doctor who said he had stool backed up in him. She asked him if he wanted to ‘go off’ and he said yes, but he said he couldn’t use the toilet here. He was really kind of scornful. She gave him two tablets and that passed the pain for a while. We went back home.

“After a while the problem started back with the diarrhoea and vomiting, everything he ate just came back out. I took him back by Mummy on Saturday because I had to go to work. He was living with my mother because my father had died and she was living alone in a big house. When he had his heart surgery, they said somebody always had to be with him.”

Hicks-Murray said Murray was taken to the hospital again on Saturday and was given three injections. She did not know what drug they contained.

“It was like he get delirious. He started to talk hard and throw things. I had to call for the doctors. Three doctors came and put him on a bed. Afterwards they sent him back home.

“Then I asked him if he was feeling all right, because I find he was breathing fast.

“Monday I went to work and Mummy called me and say he was still vomiting with diarrhoea. I told her to get him ready and he say he couldn’t make it because he was feeling weak.

“They told him to drink plenty coconut water. Mummy put him to sit on a bench in the bathroom to bathe. She partially had to dress him because he was real weak – and that was it from there.

“My husband drove the car into the yard because Sunil couldn’t walk to come out. Time we driving past North Eastern Secondary to the back road to reach the hospital, his eyes start to go down. I tell my husband, ‘Stop the car, stop the car, something happen, something happen.’

“I see my child eyes start to roll up in his head and he started to gasp. I started to bawl and tell my husband to drive fast. When we reached the hospital he had a pulse and they take over from there.”

The autopsy said Murray died from “decompensated congestive cardiac failure (status: past repair of anomalous coronary artery and mitral valve repair).”

Murray’s aunt Karen George is still trying to understand why her nephew died, and wondering whether he could have been saved if treated differently.

She said Murray had heart surgery in June 2018 after experiencing chest pain while working at the Arima health facility with Amalgamated Security. He went to the Accident and Emergency department, where they gave him a referral letter to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope.

But, she said, like most young people, he put it off and went to the hospital the next day.

“He spent the whole day there and was admitted 7 pm on Friday. They did all kinds of tests and I must say they were really, really thorough. He got all his tests and the results within days.

“They found he had an abnormal heart and they said he was born like that. They said instead of the valves being outside the heart, they were inside the heart, squeezing it. When they examined him they saw that it was working at 45 per cent. They decided to repair the heart and they said the surgery was a success,” she said.

George said Murray was given copies of all his tests and results and took them every time he went to a doctor, so she was wondering if the doctors at Sangre Grande even considered his past medical history.

“Doctors at Sangre Grande called Mt Hope on the second occasion and spoke to a Dr Ali. They also called the day before he died.

“After he did the surgery last year they gave him an appointment to do his echocardiogram on January 7, this year. When he went he was told that the person who did that test was absent and he was given another date for October 4. So had to wait ten months to do that test.

“I could never see somebody seeing a child vomiting like that and send him back home. Refer him to Mt Hope, send him down in the ambulance, something. You seeing he come once, he come twice... the last doctor to send him home was a Dr Pascal. My sister started to trip off at him after Sunil died, saying she didn’t want to see him because he sent home her son to die. Dr Pascal told a nurse it wasn’t him, that he was given directive from his seniors to send him home,” she said.

A hospital source said Murray discharged himself on the first visit against medical advice, was treated on the second occasion, and only presented with cardiac problems on the last visit.

Eastern Regional health Authority chairman Ronald Tsoi-a-Fatt said he will investigate.