Dr Asante Van West‐Charles‐Le Blanc, the doctor of leader of the Highway Re-Route Movement (HRM) Dr Wayne Kublalsingh, has withdrawn her services with immediate effect, saying it was too difficult to witness the environmentalist waste away. She said as a doctor she was sworn to preserve life and from her observations Kublalsingh is dying. “After many sleepless nights, endless conversations with my mentor and advisers, it is with a very heavy heart that I have to suspend my professional relationship with Dr Kublalsingh. “I have informed him that I am more than happy to continue medical treatment once he stops this hunger strike. I am not threatening or coercing him but rather being honest with him and myself,” she said in a press release yesterday.
Kublalsingh yesterday completed Day 23 of his hunger strike in protest of the disputed Debe to Mon Desir extension of the Solomon Hochoy Highway to Point Fortin. Van West‐Charles‐Le Blanc, who was also Kublalsingh’s physician during his first hunger strike in 2012, said she believed there was no doubt Kublalsingh’s life was in grave danger. “In my mind it is no longer stable. It is critical and there is no stability about it. We know there is organ damage. “Whether it is irreparable or irreversible, that has to be determined when we do further testing. What I have done is I have asked permission to have myself recused from this,” Van West‐Charles‐Le Blanc said.
She said a long established common law principle upheld the right to individual self-determination, including the choice to refuse treatment but she admitted it was hard for her. “The true clinical picture is not a pretty one, there are no smokescreens or tricks, this citizen of Trinidad and Tobago is dying. Owing to this, I have been forced to reflect and have advised Dr Kublalsingh that I am forced to take a step back,” she added. She said, however, Kublalsingh’s strike was a reflection of the critical situation that was before T&T. “As a physician, I believe in preserving life as well as death with dignity, but I am caught in a moral and ethical crossroad and must make this difficult decision. Dr Kublalsingh has expressed his understanding and has liberated me from my obligations,” VanWest‐Charles‐Le Blanc added.
Despite his doctor’s warnings, Kublalsingh said he had no intention of stopping the strike but he said he understood her position. He added: “I just want to thank her because of all the doctors in Trinidad she was the noblest and bravest to come and assist me and come and talk to the media and to talk accurately about the state of my health. “So I sent her my deepest respect and my deepest love and I want to say to the nation that this does not in any way deviate from our intention, which is to request that the Prime Minister honour her promise and review the Debe to Mon Desir highway. I want to wish her all the best and I still love her very much and I respect her nobility and her decision in this matter.”
