Help is yet to come to little Faith Davis, four years after leaked intravenous liquid almost burnt a hole in her right hand when she was just three days old and a patient at the San Fernando General Hospital. The black scar, a stark reminder of that day on July 10, 2009, when she was taken to the hospital for treatment, is still visible on her dark skin, in spite of promises of cosmetic surgery. But that’s not the only problem. Faith, who will turn four on July 8, is small for her age and has a hearing impediment. Her desperate mother, Mauren Davis, blames it all on the injuries she suffered at birth. Faith continues to attend clinic at the Princes Town medical facility and at the paediatric clinic at the San Fernando hospital. She needs speech therapy but her parents do not have the money to pay for the therapy, which is not available in the public hospitals.
Davis said Faith cries incessantly and complains of pain in her hand where she was burnt. “Sometimes she stop just so and bites her brothers and sisters...If you just touch her (gently) she would start to bawl and scream,” Davis said. “I don’t know what to do, who to turn to. This child need special attention, but up to now we never got any kind of help or compensation for her.”
Davis questioned the outcome of an investigation the hospital was ordered to do by then minister of health Jerry Narace. “At the time hospital authorities told us there would have been an investigation. No one ever told us what was the outcome of that investigation. We never got any satisfaction, we never got no compensation and my entire family is suffering.” At a news conference after the incident, then medical director Dr Stephen Ramroop, now ODPM chairman, assured that the wound was superficial. He said the skin damage, called extravasation, could have happened when baby Faith suffered a seizure. “The bone would heal. Nothing is wrong with the child’s bones, nothing is wrong with the limb. It is a superficial burn that most of us would get when we scald our hands. In this case it was due to a fluid that leaked into the tissue and damaged the skin,” Ramroop said at the July 15, 2009, news conference.
Maintaining that there was negligence in the care of her child and subsequent attempts to cover it up, Davis said she did not have the wherewithal to pursue legal action. She said attempts by attorney Anand Ramlogan, the present Attorney General, to represent the family and recover damages never materialised. Davis suffered a nervous breakdown days after Faith’s injury. Her husband, Earl, who had to stay at home and take care of Davis, Faith and their five other children, lost his job and has been doing odd jobs since then. When attempts to get Ramlogan to help failed, Davis said she and her husband turned to former AG Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj. “He put us on to an attorney Kingsley Walesby, who wrote us a letter on June 13, informing us to seek legal aid,” she said. The letter states in part: “Please be advised that any potential claim to be commenced either by yourself and/or by Mr Earl Davis in relation to this matter will become statute barred on or before July 11, 2013.”
The attorney said after this date, Davis and her husband will be unable to claim damages for the injuries to baby Faith. However, Faith will still be entitled to pursue her claim for up to four years after she turns 18, the letter said. Davis pleaded for anyone to help her. “Please, please, I don’t know how much more of this I can take. My child needs special care and what she went through, no one should. Somebody needs to compensate me and my child for her pain and suffering.” SFGH Medical Director Dr Anand Chatoorgoon has promised to review the case and to see what assistance the hospital can provide for the family.