Dear Editor,

The tragic story of baby Axel Chong’s death at St Ann’s Bay Hospital was painful to read; no doubt this is one of many incidents which happen every year in public hospitals, adults included, due to lack of proper facilities and resources.

I heard about this child’s death last year through a friend, but hearing the details as recounted by the parents, Alexis Heron and Gavin Chong, made it more real, and this must’ve been very difficult to share publicly.

Yes, the child’s condition was obviously serious enough after being told by the paediatrician to rush the baby to the nearest hospital and not risk losing any time taking the baby too far elsewhere. We don’t know if the child’s life could’ve been saved. But there is still a big “if”; what if they had working life-saving equipment at the hospital, such as a heart monitor and oxygen tanks, for these types of medical emergencies.

There are also questions about the drug administered through IV. The use of ambulances which carry emergency equipment is also vital for emergencies. I’m not sure why this wasn’t suggested.

As for the difficulties getting the required documents and information after the death, this is just not acceptable. We must demand better and not continue to just sit back and accept mediocre treatment in public health care services. This affects quality of life!

I hope the minister of health and other stakeholders will personally intervene. Lessons should be learned from this unfortunate incident. There should be someone on staff at all hospitals (public or private) to ensure that emergency life-saving equipment is available and is working.

Perhaps the only good thing which might help the investigation is that the child is also a US citizen, according to the report, and this is not a good look for Jamaica. But we must get to the place where we don’t have systems that work better in some cases, based on citizenship.

We must demand better services from those responsible. Although there are serious challenges with health care services, some issues are really basic, and it is mind-boggling to understand why in 2018 we can’t fix the basic stuff and gradually work on addressing the more complex problems.

P Chin

chin_p@yahoo.com