On April 15, a six-month-old baby died at the Spanish Town hospital less than 24 hours after being vaccinated at a health centre. The autopsy showed that the baby died of bronchopneumonia.

A month later, there is no indication that additional tests to determine exactly what brought about the child’s death have been completed and that the results will soon be made public. In a May 21 e-mail sent out by head of the Paediatric Association of Jamaica to colleagues, a section reads:

“Due to the sensitive nature of the case and the possible ramifications of misinformation getting to the public, it is imperative that we are very careful with any public commentary on the matter.

“We therefore ask that if you are approached on this matter that you refrain from commenting on it directly. We encourage you to refer to the fact that the matter is under investigation and you are therefore unable to comment on it.”

It is almost a certainty that places like our public health clinics and the Spanish Town Hospital see and admit mostly those who are from the poorest class of Jamaicans. Except for an extreme emergency in the dead of night, a health centre like the Bustamante Hospital for Children exists specifically to suit the medical needs of children from poor families. After all, which middle-class mother with a sick child would be prepared to wait 12 hours just to see a doctor?

It is typical in Jamaica that people from the poorer, least educated classes repose almost a blind trust in those occupying professions in the medical field and the law. We know that some doctors are much better than others and the real horrible ones somehow get buried in the system and continue to practise, with the general public being blissfully unaware of it. And we know, of course, that the legal profession is riddled with scammers, only a few of whom get busted by the General Legal Council and are kicked out.

And quite strange, whenever lawyers run off with clients’ funds and skip the country there seems to be no haste in even attempting to request extradition. It’s a closed shop and it tends to sully the reputation of those who take professionalism and integrity as the twin pillars of their craft.

Whenever we identify our brightest, most capable men and women of this country, as long as they produce, we have a duty to celebrate them even though we know that in a small country like Jamaica, the size of egos brought on by ‘authority’ tend to eclipse the weight of the résumé and the production of expertise.

What takes place in this scenario is little pockets of ‘village tyrants’ where those at the very top of important organisations wield power in such a way that those in the lower tiers, especially if they want to attain additional professional certification, must constantly kowtow to the bidding of those at the top. Worse is actually having an independent mind and an enquiring eye and mind, and daring to stand up for a principle which may be deemed ‘rocking the boat’ by those holding true to the tenets of the fraternal order and dictates.

A few years ago, I was at a little two-stool bar in the Constant Spring area when a child, probably about seven years old, walked in with a teenager. After the teen had purchased bag juice and left I asked the bartender about the child, who had disfigured arms and legs and walked with difficulty.

The bartender said to me. “Dem drop di baby a hospital an’ a cover it up.” Of course, on a weekly basis people are telling me all sorts of stuff and it is always difficult to determine where the truth is. That said, what I have picked up as a common thread since I began writing newspaper columns in 1993 is that many poor people have been wronged by those in ‘authority’.

Whether it is a rich man’s dog horribly mangling a child’s leg, a rich man’s son raping the helper’s underage daughter, a senior policeman’s son getting caught in a hit-and-run, etc, the response mode is a standard one. A little money is offered and a piece of paper is handed to the gullible to sign. If the poor person who is wronged decides to stand up for his rights, the rich man brings down the collective weight of his peers (police, lawyers etc) and the little man is forced to back away and seethe in silence.

At my request, the bartender summoned the mother of the disfigured child and she told me a story of her newborn child who had been apparently mishandled and fallen from her cot while in the hospital. She said a nurse had whispered it to her and begged her not to tell anyone who told her so. As I questioned her further and took notes, quite probably she saw the futility of it all and viewed me as just another layer in that authority structure. She opted for the pragmatic.

“So, how much yu a go gimme fi write dah story yah?” I stared at her over my spectacles then spun on my barstool and ordered a beer. End of story.

Why are they destroying Dr Sandra Williams-Phillips?

They do not get much better than Dr Sandra Williams-Phillips. In April 2012, Everard Barton, Professor of Medicine and Nephrology, in writing her a two-page recommendation said, among other things:

“Dr Sandra Williams-Phillips was employed in 2009 to the University Hospital of the West Indies and the University of the West Indies as Adolescent and Adult Congenital Consultant and Associate Lecturer. Her academic performance in her role has been excellent and is further detailed below. She has excellent ability to grasp concepts and reason analytically with original thought as exemplified by producing four original Research Protocols in 2011.

“Dr Sandra Williams-Phillips, a British Chevening Scholar, is a paediatric and adolescent cardiologist who did her Clinical Fellowship at the Royal Brompton National Heart and Lung Institute in London…

“She received outstanding commendations for her fellowship…

“Teaching of undergraduate medical students, post-graduate medical students and others interested in specialist training in cardiology is also a part of her portfolio. Dr Williams-Phillips has been doing an excellent job and works well with all staff in the Department of Medicine and the team of adult cardiologists.”

The recommendation ended with, “Based on her high level of competence, dedication and participation, including teaching of her updated skills, I unreservedly provide this recommendation for Dr Sandra Williams-Phillips.”

Notice that there is no middle ground or waffling in the tenor of the recommendation. It is peppered with ‘excellent’, ‘outstanding’, ‘high level of competence’.

As I write this piece, Dr Williams-Phillips is barely able to manage financially, and the cardiac catheterisations that she would need to perform as a normal part of the procedure in determining the specific heart problems of her patients cannot be done as she has been made persona non grata at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), the only facility that has the equipment. How did it all come to this?

According to Dr Williams-Phillips, it began in 2009 when she was working at the Bustamante Hospital for Children, when “I discovered cardiac patients labelled “inoperable” without proper investigations, including cardiac catheterisations. This was reported to then SMO. We agreed in a meeting that cardiac cath would be done and those who were still operable be put on mission list for November 2009″.

According to Dr Williams-Phillips, “I was blocked from doing cardiac caths at UHWI where the lab is situated via letter written by CEO of the UHWI, hence blocked from doing cath on over 20 “inoperable” children. At least eight of them have had surgery with help of philanthropic colleagues abroad and are alive and well.”

Poor people’s children deemed inoperable and yet eight saved? Read next week’s column for another part of this shocking story.