Not just sick, sickening

WE HAVE known for a long time that all is not well in our public healthcare system.

But the shocking case of Katherine Akum Lum – which this week prompted the intervention of Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh – suggests not only is the system sick, but it also sickening.

Ms Akum Lum went to the St James Medical Centre for a hysterectomy on June 12, 2019. On the operating table, instead of saline, or even distilled water, her abdominal cavity was washed with liquid lye.

How lye came to even be present in the highly controlled surgical theatre is a mystery.

That mystery should be resolved not in civil litigation – a lawsuit brought by Ms Akum Lum is reportedly ongoing – but rather in a criminal court.

Lye is a highly corrosive chemical. Among its many applications, it can be used to liquify animal tissue. There are several documented cases of human bodies being disposed of with it.

The breaches that occurred here are of such a serious nature as to demand police action, not closed-door talks between lawyers and North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) officials.

Those breaches are not limited to possible breakdowns in standards and internal systems. The facts also warrant the examination of this as a security issue and a potential criminal matter, whether through negligence or otherwise.

We find it stunning that such a serious case, with its deeply disturbing elements, was only brought to the attention of the minister this week. Three years have almost elapsed. That alone is sickening.

But also distressing is the plight of Ms Akum Lum who has been begging the State to help her source the US-dollar funds required to receive follow-up medical attention for an incident which, for all intents and purposes, happened on the State’s watch and through no fault of hers.

We ask, do the authorities have no compassion? Is there no sense of what is an appropriate case to legally challenge and what is not? How could the NWRHA suggest follow-up treatment abroad be delayed pending resolution of currency issues?

As in the recent matter involving a boy who was subjected to the wrong eye surgery because of a name mix-up, this is a case which should never have reached this stage. A woman was left to suffer for almost three years.

Mr Deyalsingh was completely correct when he effectively suggested many errors were made since 2019.

“That particular incident is very, very distressing to me personally,” he said on Wednesday as he took charge and announced he was helping Ms Akum Lum get treatment. “I wish we could turn back the clock, but we can’t.”

We may be unable to turn back time, but it is not too late for those responsible, whether individual actors or corporate bodies, to be held accountable.