16-year-old Lupus patient dies at GPHC; father claims negligence

By Isanella Patoir

Sixteen-year-old Nandita Mohanram was a normal high school teenager before she was diagnosed with lupus in 2018.

On May 05, 2020, Nandita died in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

She was hospitalised three weeks prior to her death after what her father Vijay Mohanram thought was just a routine visit. The father is claiming it was the hospital’s negligence that led to her death.

Mr Mohanram said the teen managed the systemic autoimmune disease for two years without any major complications.

The single father of three, during an interview with the News Room, said his daughter died two days after being administered her first session of dialysis.

The father further explained that his daughter became unconscious while being administered the dialysis and never regained consciousness. He reasoned that if the doctors had given her the dialysis treatment before her condition worsened she would probably still be alive today.

“When they tried to give her dialysis she lost consciousness…we looking to know why didn’t give her the dialysis before?

“Why they wait the last moment to do it, why they didn’t do it from upfront?” the father questioned.

The distraught father recalled that his young daughter spent most of her days in and out of the hospital and the disease eventually damaged her kidney and she subsequently suffered from arthritis.

He said he was prepared to give his daughter one of his kidneys if it had come to that.

He explained that it was after she was admitted to GPHC in April that she experienced painful and drastic changes and subsequently her death.

“She joined a clinic and the doctor said whenever she gets any swelling must carry her back, so after her belly started to stiffen and swell we called a taxi and carry her to the hospital,” the father said.

“It so painful to know I try and try hard and spend a lot of money to save her life, to know that the doctors did not take it seriously,” the father said.

Nandita was the youngest of three children and a student of the Uitvulgt Secondary School, West Coast Demerara.

Mr Mohanram is sugar worker at the Uitvulgt Estate since 1996. His wife died in 2006 and since then he has been caring for his children.

The Mayo Clinic states that lupus affects about 1 in 1,000 people and occurs when your body’s immune system attacks your healthy tissues and organs.

Lupus is most times hard to diagnose as its wide range of symptoms include inflammation to the joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart and lungs and often mimics other diseases.