Parents to sue KPH for negligence in neonates saga

THE PARENTS of one of the neonates, whose remains was allegedly found among stray dogs after it was inadvertently discarded with other body parts from the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) in May, has said that they intend to sue the institution for negligence in the matter.

“In fact, we have already started with the proceedings,” the father of the child told The Gleaner. He argued that the Kingston Public Hospital and the Victoria Jubilee Hospital appeared to have forfeited their responsibility to hold the body in a secure location, pending an autopsy.

The parents are being represented by attorney Bert Samuels of the firm Knight, Junor and Samuels, who confirmed that he had been tasked with the legal undertaking.

INVITATION TO SETTLE

“It is true we are representing the couple in this case. We will invite the hospital to settle the matter and failure will result in us taking the next step,” Samuels told The Gleaner. “We have not started the proceedings to sue. It’s an option down the road, beyond them [the hospitals] not willing to settle,” he said.

Attempts to get a comment from the KPH proved futile as it was said that the CEO, Colleen Wright, was not available.

Mitcheika Bryan, the child’s mother, said that she gave birth to a baby boy on March 10, 2018, but that the boy died shortly after.

“I was given a document requesting that an autopsy be done on March 16. The autopsy date was set for May 24, 2018,” Bryan explained. “However, the news broke [that bodies of neonates were found discarded]. I became worried, so the child’s father visited the hospital, not once but twice, just to find out if we would need to collect his body or if the hospital would take care of him after the autopsy was done,” she added.

Bryan said that the customer service personnel at the hospital told the child’s father that she was not aware of what he was talking about.

“It was very disheartening, but we decided to make our queries on the date of the autopsy, except that there was to be no autopsy as they said that the body was missing,” Bryan recounted .

She said that attempts have since been made to get answers from the hospitals’ CEO, patient affairs officer, and the senior medical officer, all without luck.

– P.C.