Ian Alleyne’s attorneys pause on court action for his release

Crime Watch host Ian Alleyne will be staying in Caura Hospital for now.

On Thursday, at a remote hearing, lawyers for Alleyne told Justice Ricky Rahim he had decided to withdraw his application for habeas corpus.

After being told on Aprl 14 that he had tested negative for covid19 and was being discharged, Alleyne was then told he had in fact tested positive and must stay in hospital.

Alleyne was seeking to have Dr Michelle Trotman justify his continued detention at the hospital or have the court order his immediate release from quarantine.

A communication error has been blamed for the discrepancy in his covid19 test results. Trotman, medical director of the Caura Hospital, where Alleyne is quarantined, gave evidence that the Trinidad Public Health Laboratory made an error when entering Alleyne’s test result in its spreadsheet.

Trotman’s account was contained in her affidavit filed in opposition to Alleyne’s legal challenge over his isolation at the Caura Hospital.

Thursday’s hearing was the first remote hearing in which the media were allowed to log in to follow the proceedings.

Attorney Gerald Ramdeen said the decision to drop the application was taken after perusing the affidavits filed by Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Roshan Parasram, Trotman and Dr Gabriel Gonzales-Escobar, head of laboratory services at the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA).

This means that Alleyne, having tested positive, remains in quarantine at the hospital.

Ramdeen said it was the first time his client had received his medical records, but had concerns, as they raised issues of serious errors in the administration of the tests.

Expressing surprise at the move was Senior Counsel Reginald Armour, who represents Trotman, who is named as the defendant in Alleyne’s application

The matter was stood down briefly to allow the attorneys to speak privately, after which Armour said he had some concern about Ramdeen's claims and the effect they could have on onfidence in CARPHA, the institution administering the tests regionally.

He said there was uncontradicted evidence that there was no error in administering Alleyne's tests, and only an error in the transmission of the results from CARPHA to the Trinidad Public Health Laboratory.

Armour labelled it a communication error.

In her affidavit, Trotman said CARPHA sends test results to the Ministry of Health for transmission to the attending physicians. She said she has been told of results orally or by a spreadsheet provided by the Public Health Laboratory.

She said Alleyne was admitted as a covid19-positive patient on March 25. She also said he was first tested at Caura Hospital on April 5 and not March 29, as he said. She said she was told CARPHA had rejected the swab because it didn’t meet its criteria. He was swabbed and tested again on April 7 and the result was positive for covid19. He was swabbed and tested again on April 10 and this time the result, received two days later, was negative.

Trotman said Alleyne was told of the negative result and on April 13, he was again swabbed and tested, but the result came back positive.

She said before the CARPHA hard copy of the result was received, the Public Health Laboratory sent its spreadsheet, which said Alleyne’s result was negative.

Trotman spoke to the CMO, as the quarantine authority, telling him Alleyne would be discharged. She said she agreed to Alleyne’s request to stay another night so he could arrange for security for when he was discharged. Then, some time after 6 pm on Tuesday, the CMO called to tell her he had received a physical copy of Alleyne’s test result and that it was positive.

Alleyne was then told of the error and that he could not be discharged.

Trotman said she did not know why Alleyne was given a discharge form, and denied that his test results were compromised.

“The discrepancy between what was communicated to Mr Alleyne about his test result and the actual result came about because of an error by TPHL when entering the test result in its spreadsheet,” Trotman said. She also said he refused to be re-swabbed on April 14 and 15.

In his affidavit, Gonzales-Escobar set out the procedure for covid19 testing, starting with the member state sending the sample swab, after which CARPHA tests the sample using polymerase chain reaction testing.

If a test is positive, CARPHA informs the CMO of a particular country, because of the urgency of the situation.

For all results, an official report is prepared and sent to the CMOs. In TT’s case, it is sent to Parasram and the director of the Public Health Laboratory.

He said from Alleyne’s case, CARPHA records show that he tested positive on March 24; negative on April 12; and positive on April 14. He also spoke of CARPHA’s protocols for discharge.

Parasram said Alleyne would be discharged when he presented two negative tests in 24 hours.

He said on April 14, he received one of the test results from CARPHA which revealed Alleyne was still positive, although he had been told earlier that day by Trotman that Alleyne had had a second negative result.

Parasram said he immediately relayed the information to Trotman and told her to contact the laboratory to verify the positive result herself.

“In light of Mr Alleyne’s positive test result he is not eligible for discharge as yet,” Parasram said.

He said CARPHA generates the test results for TT and sends them to the Public Health Laboratory, which then sends it to lab managers and sometimes the chief of staff. The managers then send the results to the attending doctors.

The CMO said he has asked for a report on what caused the discrepancy between the recording of the results and the actual result from CARPHA.

Attorneys have until May 4 to file submissions on the issue of costs.

Rahim is expected to hear another covid19 legal challenge on Friday.