A UK-based Vincentian who had defended the healthcare system in St. Vincent and the Grenadines says she felt embarrassed after her sister died at Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH) without receiving the medical report that her insurance company needed to fly her overseas.
“I’m embarrassed because when I’m in England, I big up St Vincent. This is our home,” Deborah Turner told iWitness News in Kingstown.
“I don’t like nobody talk bad about St. Vincent. You hear rumours. People say, ‘Don’t get sick down in St. Vincent’ ‘Make sure you have insurance.’ ‘The hospital dirty.’ ‘They don’t do nothing good for you down there.’ ‘They rather make you dead.’
“You hear all these things, and I just think, ‘What a load of rubbish!’ But to come down here and to experience that it’s true — the hospital is just dirty. They don’t seem to care,” she said.
Turner was speaking after her sister, Earla Quintyn, died at MCMH on Oct. 11, five days after an incident while swimming at Indian Bay.
She said that after her sister died, she got more information about her conditions that when she was hospitalised.
“And also, tell the truth, we got more out of the man at the morgue more than anybody else,” Turner said.
She told iWitness News that the morgue worker explained the reasons for some of the changes they had observed in Earla’s body before she died, which the medical staff at the hospital had failed to explain.
Turner said her media interview was not to attack anyone but to document her experience so better could done.
Turner and Quintyn, both of whom were born in St. Vincent, arrived in the country on Sept. 11 on vacation.
“… my sister arrived in good spirits. She was healthy,” Turner said of Quintyn, who was in her late 60s.
“We did all the local things … and then we went away to Barbados for three nights then came back. Everything was fine.”
She said that on the night of Oct. 5, Quintyn said she felt as if her “asthma is going to come on”.
However, Quintyn was fine when she went to bed and when she woke up the following morning.
The duo went to Indian Bay sometime after 8 a.m. on Oct. 6, Turner said, adding that while Quintyn, a strong swimmer, went into the water, she did not.
Turner said she was people-watching while her sister enjoyed the water and would look in Quintyn’s direction frequently.
She said she looked away from her sister for about three minutes and when she looked back Quintyn was not there. However, a rock was obscuring the view.
“And I figured, ‘Where’s she gone?’ The next thing, I see her floating on her back,” Turner told iWitness News.
“I was oh my gosh, ‘She could really float good.’ Because she’s a very strong swimmer.”
Turner said that she noticed her sister was floating towards other sea bathers.
“I said, ‘She better be careful because she going to go into them’,” Turner told iWitness News, adding that shortly after, she saw people bringing Quintyn out of the water.
One of them told her that as Quintyn was floating by, they noticed that she was frothing at the mouth.
Turner said a man began to perform CPR on Quintyn and someone called the ambulance.
However, after the ambulance had not arrived after about 10 minutes, the people suggested calling the police, saying they might respond more quickly.
“And I’m just thinking, it’s now 12 minutes going on. Next thing we know, the police came first,” she said.
The ambulance still had not arrived after about 15 minutes so the police decided to put Quintyn in the back of their pick-up and take her to the hospital.
“I was very grateful for the police coming because no one was coming,” Turner told iWitness News. “But I have to say this: They told me to go in the van. I said, ‘In the back seat?’ They say, ‘No. Go in the front’,” Turner said, adding that she thought she was going to sit in the back seat with her sister’s head on her lap.
“But they put her in the back of that police truck — open truck.
“I don’t want to give the police a bad name because they did come. But no CPR was given. The CPR had stopped. They laid her on her side. So there again, lack of oxygen; 25 minutes now, that’s lack of oxygen.”
Turner said that when they got to the decommissioned airport in Arnos Vale, an ambulance was stopped there.
‘Private ambulance’
The police asked if they were responding to the emergency at the beach.
“They said, ‘No, this is a private ambulance.’ I didn’t understand what they meant. And the officer explained they got somebody in the back of the truck who was suspected of drowning,” Turner said.
“Now I thought, yes, it’s a private ambulance. They had no work to do. They weren’t going anywhere. They were just driving. I thought they were at least come out and say, ‘Use our equipment to give her oxygen.’”
She said the only assistance the ambulance gave was to use its siren — as the police pickup had none — to help clear the traffic.
However, notwithstanding this, the police pick-up got to the hospital before the ambulance.
‘I had to bust some wud after them’
“I jumped out now, and the nurses that came out from the emergency door were more looking at the ambulance or whatever. Because I think they see the ambulance coming the right way and the police coming the [other] way.
“But they were — I’m sorry, I have to say this — nonchalant. They’re just taking their time… I’m sorry I had to bust some wud after them. I had to say, ‘What are you guys doing? It’s an emergency here. My [expletive] sister’s dying. It’s a drowning situation.’
Turner said Quintyn was placed in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital but added that no one at the hospital communicated with her about her sister’s condition. However, the hospital allowed Turner to see Quintyn in the ICU.
Turner returned to the hospital the following day, Oct. 6.
“I tried to ask the nurse if there was any improvement,” she said, adding that the nurse said she had to talk to the doctor.
Turner said that when she asked to speak to the doctor, the nurse said that the doctor was making his rounds.
“But I never got to speak to the doctor. So, the questions I wanted to ask …, the doctor had gone,” she said.
“So, I said, ‘No, I’m not having this. No, I need to see the doctor, because I need to know what’s going wrong with her, what’s going on.’
“And the young lady came back and she goes, ‘Hold on there.’ I don’t know how long we waited. I know it was over an hour, but we waited. … She come back and she says you could get a medical note or report”
Turner said the medical report was for her sister’s insurance company “so they could start getting things processed back in England so that they could decide where it is that my sister would need to go”.
She said the MCMH staff explained the process through which she could get the medical report.
“She made me believe this note was going to be done the Monday. We go downstairs to find out it wasn’t going to be done the Monday.”
Turner said that when she asked that the notes be prepared urgently, she was referred to a social worker, who was not in at the time.
She was then sent to another member of the hospital staff who took all the details.
“And I said, ‘Well, when will we get this medical note?’ She goes, ‘I’ll see if I could get this done today for you.”
However, the worker requested the name of the doctor, which Turner did not have.
“I did not see the doctor. I only communicated with the nurse who got that information from the doctor.”
Turner said the hospital worker said she would go upstairs get the name of the doctor and get the physician to prepare the notes.
“My hopes were [up]. They’re going to be very efficient. This was around lunchtime.”
However, when they returned in the afternoon, the notes were still not ready.
‘it just went all wrong’
The hospital workers told Turner to return the following day — Oct. 8. — to collect the medical notes.
“And then it just went all wrong. From there we’ve just been told stories. No medical notes have been done.”
Turner said that on Oct. 8, she went into the ICU as the doctor was making his rounds.
However, the questions the doctor was asking related to whether Turner wanted to try to move Quintyn to another hospital rather than giving information about the patient’s condition.
Turner had not received the medical notes when her sister died at the hospital on Oct. 11 and even after the British High Commissioner had been notified and reportedly inquired.
“And the insurance company needed the notes for them to go forward to see what they can do and what decision they could make to say which hospital they could put her,” Turner said.
Meanwhile, Venice Quintyn, another of the women’s sisters who flew from England to St. Vincent before Earla Quintyn died, also complained to iWitness News about the lack of communication.
“They’ve done nothing to reassure relatives and loved ones that’s concerned that, yes, this is the stage she’s at, or the doctors did not report to us,” Venice Quintyn told iWitness News in the same interview.
She said the nurses did not answer their questions about Earla’s breathing or other changes to her body they had noticed before she died.
When the hospital called to say that Earla died, a doctor came on the line and told Turner, “‘I’m the doctor you saw when you brought your sister in. And she goes, ‘I’m so sorry.” She said she had a cardiac arrest and we tried to revive her for 25 minutes and she said she passed away.”
Turner said that was the most information she got out of a doctor about her sister’s condition.
“And still no medical notes,” she emphasised.
Venice Quintyn pointed out that there was never a family meeting with the hospital to communicate information about Earla’s condition and her prognosis.
“… it’s not that we want to blast this country. We want to put in this complaint so people are aware, so that they can make improvements. That’s my thing — to make improvements and have much more regard for the relatives that they need support, as well as the person,” she said.
You should have come to me, senior hospital staffer tells sisters
The sisters said that after the death, they were referred to a senior member of the hospital’s administrative staff who told them that they should have come to her when they were having challenges getting the medical report.
That hospital official allegedly told the sisters that the report was ready and only needed to be signed.
They, however, said that another hospital worker had told them that the medical report had been prepared but the staff had been asked to make certain amendments to it.
She said they were told to return on Oct. 14 for the notes, but they had not received them up to Oct. 16, when they gave the interview with iWitness News.
“It’s really upsetting. I’m not saying that I will never come to St. Vincent again. I will come to St. Vincent again but it’s just upsetting,” Turner told iWitness News.
“I felt so good because coming down on the flight with so many people going to Sandals, and we’re talking to them…
“So, I’m telling them, oh, you need to go by the waterfall, you need to go see where they filmed Pirates of the Caribbean. I’m promoting the island and everything.
“So, you know, we want the tourism. And then you just think, now you go down to that hospital. What I want to know, if it was an English person, would they treat that person that way?
“But let me take that aside. We’re promoting tourism. We have to fix the physical infrastructure, the system, the way they’re talking to people; no information. This that; nonchalance. If I was on my own? If I didn’t have support?”
Turner told iWitness News that the first day she went to the hospital, she was with someone “who works with people high up.
“And she couldn’t believe it herself. But she lives down here and every day she asked me if I got the report, and every day, she said, ‘My Lord, I can’t believe it. You want me to come back down with you?’
“And the thing is, this person works [really high up,] and it’s as if it makes no difference. It’s just you get it when you get it.”
The sister received the medical report on Oct. 16, five days after Turner died.
There are some infrastructure gaps in SVG. The medical field has no shortage of ibfrastructure but tgey are seriousky lacking in good managemebt abd administration and a system design approach. They have many areas of operation that are physically in the same space but the data collected from each process remain disparate. System thinking, maps a pricess abd establishes connections to support the optimal delivery of services
This is the state of our health system. If it was an accused murderer from Jamaica she would have gotten better attention. There was a woman who delivered a baby on the ground outside Matt Ward we still waiting on the investigation and a report. Welcome to SVG where all out politicians do is globe trott.
First of all my condolences to the family so so so sad 😞 but alas the truth is the truth, health care and our so called Hospital is …….. and in regards to people who visit and have vacations here Lord help you. But let’s just be honest if I takes a visitor to highlight the alleged failings , imagine what type of care a islander receives????? Unfortunately I recall our own prime minister flying quick time to Barbados ?? When a missile was thrown at him. Truth is the truth. I’ve even noticed some of my comments are even published ????
You know it’s so funny,I am an English vincy,i live here now and I have always been told about the state of the hospital,so when I got sick and got admitted to hospital I expected the worst,now I don’t know if it’s because I sound very English but I received very good treatment,I was admitted as an emergency and spent very little time before the doctor came and I was admitted,my doctor was very good she explained everything to me,the nurses were pleasant,respectful,and very helpful,I found the ward clean,I had to have various tests eg scan,mri,heart monitoring,bloodtests and all were carried out efficiently, am so sorry for this family,my condolences,am aware my experience is not everyone else’s,I hope you find answers and get closer…
This is why Vincentian 🇻🇨 should vote, “GAP” in the next election. This sort of thing will never happen again. It is a promise. “GAP” will be a true Government And Peace to the citizens of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
This is terrible I’m going to cancel my holiday to st vincent, best to go to another country with better healthcare because you never know what could happen. This story is terrible.
A process of teaching most people CPR was started years ago this case emphasis the need for CPR training to be part of the recruitment training of police doctors and nurses and an annual renewal not just I the training it must be regular we know we are poor but having defibrillators which are now very cheap at certain focal points the country can be helpful perhaps at all police stations and clinics to begin the Airports and seaports but it requires training. The first set of training was organised through red cross. In hospital staff needs to learn ILS intermediate life support and all doctors in the emergency room should have ALS. the medical team in calm should have an emergency response team to augment the emergency staff for people who arrive DOA dead on arrival and a senior anaesthetist must be involved in this group. We have proverbially been short of anaesthetist over the years and this gap has not been plugged
Disgusting and you still want to go back there.
I am from the UK and was living in SVG
I experienced their so called NON healthcare and ended up disabled having to move back to the UK
I lived in SVG for a while, had an accident, the hospital stay was horrendous no type of care at all the medical staff were rude and disrespectful.
Their lack of care rendered me disabled and I had to move back to UK.
NEVER WILL I SET MY FOOT ON THAT BACKWARD ISLAND AGAIN
Then when you say anything negative about the place they getting upset.
Oh please.
One thing I am grateful for is escaping with my life.
I tell my friends AVOID that place at all costs.
My first memory of Earla was in the 70’s, very sad to read about her recent trip to SVG which started out with the excitement that came with returning to her birth place.
My prayer is that decision makers will now use this tragic loss as a turning point to make the changes needed to make us all feel proud of my birth place.
People must understand that we are all from st.vincent we are not trying to talk the country bad we are instead trying to highight our situation ( the facts ) with the world around us and asking the question ,why cant we do better ? after soo many years of our leaders themselves highlighting many of the same problems for years while on the campain trail for office . Not everything you see someone write about is a lie or is made up we too have our “sources ” ,read between the lines and you too with find out,I am sorry for your lost and the difficulties you faced in out country,I too have had first hand exprience at the hospital
Feeling quite remorseful. My condolences to the family of this unfortunate affair.
I’m so sorry for your lost.. i myself lost my sister in that shit hole less than 2yrs ago. .she was so young and I can’t get over it. You go in alive and well and you come out dead.
You know what you don’t live there and if the people on the front line saying all the things you’ve mentioned and defended..you should have stayed neutral and give them the benefits of doubt instead.
We are fortunate and bless to be living in different parts of the world where we are able to receive extremely good health care..im not just saying this ..im a health care worker…with vincy blood.
However, I will always stay neutral with the concerns and cry of my people as I’m not on the ground ..to fully understand what they are going through.
It’s so sad that we can only see when other people story becomes our story. How about this change party and round up all of your friends to join the other team.
I am so sorry and my condolences to the family. I understand the ambulances are not as fast as developed countries but the nurses and doctors could have been more forthcoming about the lady’s medical condition. I hope an investigation is done and this doesn’t happen to anyone else. May she rest in peace.
I am sorry that this person had to experience this deplorable situation. The country prides itself on having a high end resort, a brand new airport and close relationship with Vybz Kartel while their health care system is less than acceptable. Do better SVG.
My sister , I deeply share your pain , that’s all I have to say, no more.
I heard it last week on a Barbados radio station they were saying how heads of governments with SVG by name do not go to their own hospital but instead opt to come to Barbados’ QEH for treatment […] Who was the one who had a stroke and was also sent by government to Barbados for treatment? what he name again?
I live in England and the NHS is in crisis is You have people on trolley in the corridors waiting to seen. Waiting list for operations is very long. The option is for people to go private.
The concept of a private ambulance is interesting.
My condolences to you and your entire family. In case of an emergency like this try and get get to the administrator of that department first and lodge your complaint. This is what most Vincentians have to face especially when you’re not on the same side with them. I do hope you find closure in your situation. May the Lord see you through.