Diamond man left paralysed after visiting hospital for asthma; family seeking answers

A Diamond, East Bank Demerara (EBD) family is accusing doctors at the Diamond Hospital of negligence after a 66-year-old man who visited the facility for asthma has been left paralysed.

Roland Low-a-Chee is currently in a vegetative state at home where he is being cared for by his wife and a nurse employed by the family.

“For the past eight weeks, we’ve been suffering…it’s mentally, emotionally, physically and financially challenging, so it’s been hard for us,” his wife Anita said.

“I don’t think he is seeing; he can’t hear, he can’t move. How you put him, that’s how he is left,” she added.

Low-a-Chee visited the Diamond hospital on June 7 as he suffers from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), according to his wife.

On June 8, the man’s daughter visited the hospital where she was told that her father went to urinate and then complained of being unable to breathe. He suffered a seizure.

Low-a-Chee was resuscitated by the doctor on duty but subsequently slipped into a coma and was transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital.

According to Anita, her husband suffered from seizures all day on June 8.

“Whole day that day, Monday he had seizure, and one of the doctors keep asking what medication he was using…we don’t know…Diamond hospital supposed to send a chart or something what they give him but they didn’t,” she told the News Room.

Anita said if the health workers had transported her husband with his chart, it would have allowed the doctors at the GPHC to treat him in a timelier manner.

Low-a-Chee was transferred to the male medical ward and underwent a COVID-19 test upon his family’s request. The first test came back positive but one week later, he was tested negative.

After eight weeks at the hospital, the father of five was discharged and sent home last Wednesday. But he now suffers from bed sores and other skin conditions which he developed while at the GPHC.

The man’s wife is also accusing the nurses at the GPHC of carelessness since they did not care for the man properly nor did they inform the family that they needed assistance.

“If you know in the hospital that you can’t take care of all of the patients, let the family know and advise us what to do…” the woman said.

An MRI scan showed that Mr. Low-a-Chee suffered a brain damage.

Anita believes that the man’s condition resulted from a 45mins resuscitation process undertaken by doctors at the Diamond Hospital before he was transferred to the GPHC.

However, the News Room understands that brain damage may have been caused by the seizure, leaving the 46-year-old man in his current state.

A doctor explained that a resuscitation process can only result in bruises but cannot cause a brain damage.