LUCEA, Hanover — Five years ago, Michael “Chino” Kerr said he lost his hypertensive mother while she waited for a transfer from the Noel Holmes Hospital in Hanover. On Wednesday his wife Lorna “Charm” Kerr died after an extended wait to be transferred by ambulance to the Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James.

“The whole thing send up mi pressure because it is the same thing that happened with my mother… So, it just knock mi brain left, right and centre,” Kerr told the Jamaica Observer at the hospital Wednesday.

“Mi lose mi mom and mi lose mi wife same way. If dem did rush with her (his wife) mi feel the same thing would not happen, because ah internal bleeding,” he added.

Plagued by high blood pressure as his late mother had been, Kerr was put under medical observation after hospital staff told him his 63-year-old wife had died. He narrowly escaped injury during the crash that caused her to seek medical care.

About 8:30 am Kerr and his wife, a fruit vendor, were in the vicinity of the Grand Palladium Hotel when a Toyota Voxy bus travelling in the direction of St James slammed into Lorna and her Toyota Noah bus from which she sold her wares.

“When I discovered that it was coming straight into the bus, I had to jump over the back. I could not even call my wife and the customer,” said Kerr. “When I turned around from out of the gutter I saw my wife inna di road.”

Lorna was rushed to the Noel Holmes Hospital for treatment. X-rays showed various injuries, including a fractured leg. A decision was made that she needed to be transferred but she died before she was able to leave for Cornwall Regional Hospital.

Her relatives said there was no ambulance at Noel Holmes Hospital and efforts to get assistance from the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) at the Negril fire station and two other private institutions proved futile.

Her husband said hospital personnel told the family they had tried their best but Lorna was bleeding internally.

This was little comfort to two of her grandsons, Ian Hanson and Ovaldo Thorpe.

“This is the worst hospital in a Jamaica. Lucea hospital ah the worst hospital. You have to dead first. Ah just body them collect. How much hours and you want to tell mi seh all now no ambulance nuh come yah,” raged Hanson.

Thorpe was just as scathing.

“My grandmother ah the best. Everybody buys fruits from her, even the hotel [staff] and the tourists. Everybody ah grieve right yah now. From morning… seriously. Ah wah dem ah run?” he said of the hospital’s operations.

Lorna’s daughter, Julia Lyons Bradley, has been left bereft by her death.

“Until now, not even an ambulance. I wouldn’t want anybody else’s family to go through this. This is total slackness…,” she said.

Lorna’s niece Keisha told the Observer that the owner of a privately-owned ambulance eventually offered assistance and the vehicle was on its way to Negril when her aunt died. She passed away about 35 minutes after the offer of help.

“She is my favourite aunt. She knows that I love her and she loves me. One time she even told me that she wishes that I was her daughter,” said Keisha who spoke with Lorna shortly after midday, before she appeared to slip into a coma.

“I went in to see her before and I was touching her and she was puffing. She didn’t have oxygen on and I was touching her head. She felt cold and I asked her if she’s feeling pain and she touched the broken leg. And that was it,” Keisha added.

In a response late Wednesday evening the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA), which has oversight for the Noel Holmes Hospital, said a large number of crashes impacted their ability to provide an ambulance for Lorna Kerr.

“There were more accidents than anybody could handle in the morning. There were too many of them. The fire department was responding to one at Long Hill, I was told. The Negril people were responding to another incident, one was out of commission and the hospital one was transferring someone,” explained WRHA communications specialist Mexine Bisasor.

Lorna Kerr, she said, was provided with medical care during the wait to be transferred.

“They cauterised her major issues,” stated Bisasor.

Checks by the Observer revealed that the Hanover fire department’s ambulance, which was out of service at the time of the incident, is expected to be back in service on Friday.

At Thursday morning’s regular monthly meeting of the Hanover Municipal Corporation, medical officer of health for Hanover Dr Kaushal Singh said after being contacted by the Observer he was moving to have the issue of unavailability of ambulances addressed. Later that day, regional director for the Western Regional Health Authority St Andrade Sinclair told the Observer an ambulance had been sent from Kingston to the region.

He added that he has asked for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Kerr’s death.