‘COLD’ SETTLEMENT
Nurse mom incensed over $600,000 payoff proposal after bleach incident at VJH daycare injures daughter’s eye
FIVE YEARS after a bleach spill at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital (VJH) day care centre in Kingston caused injury to the eye of a baby girl, which warranted extensive treatment and surgery, the Attorney-General’s Chambers has proposed a $668,000 settlement.
The proposition, which was presented via a letter to lawyers representing the child, has angered her parents who say the sum is an injustice considering the trauma suffered by the now six-year-old child.
The AG’s Chambers is proposing a payment of $212,545.17 for special damages, $416,436.29 for general damages, and $40,000 for costs for the incident, which occurred in March 2019.
It said the offer is in full and final settlement and is conditional upon the parents executing a release and discharge in favour of the Government of Jamaica.
However, the parents believe the response to be “cold”.
“It has been traumatic for my daughter. It’s an injustice. It’s unfair,” a peeved Melesa Neil, the child’s mother, told The Gleaner last week.
“I see it as incompetence. You throw bleach in my child’s eye, and there are two hospitals on the same compound and no form of assistance was rendered to her except for when I called a colleague of mine to go for my child to get assistance. Even then, she was still not rushed to Bustamante Hospital for any further treatment until my mother came,” she added.
Neil, a nurse assigned to the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA), recalled that she was on the campus of The University of the West Indies, Mona, waiting to sit a mid-semester exam when one of the caregivers at VJH telephoned her.
She said she was told that “a little incident” had happened involving her child but that she could not divulge all the information over the phone.
Neil said she was told that bleach had spilled into her daughter’s eye, and it had become swollen but that she had fallen asleep.
She said she called one of her colleagues who was on duty at the neighbouring Kingston Public Hospital and requested her assistance in getting a paediatrician to examine the baby.
Still, Neil said it was not until her mother arrived and grew uncomfortable at the sight of her granddaughter that the child was taken to Bustamante Hospital for Children (BHC), where she was admitted for six days.
A letter from SERHA, seen by The Gleaner, which detailed the incident, stated that the child was admitted to the hospital due to chemical injury to the eye.
It indicated that a bleach bottle was opened over the child’s head, resulting in the chemical spilling into her left eye.
It said the child’s eye, which was red and swollen, was irrigated in the Casualty Department at BHC upon arrival.
The letter said that upon examination, the child was noted to have “complete loss of epithelial tissue to the cornea as a result of the chemical injury sustained”.
The epithelial tissue forms the outer covering
of the skin.
It said that after sustained treatment, this had regenerated, but there was still mild to moderate inflammation “as a result of prolonged exposure to the chemical”.
A follow-up review of the child weeks later confirmed a symblepharon, which is a partial or complete adhesion of the palpebral conjunctiva of the eyelid to the bulbar conjunctiva of the eyeball.
The letter stated that the child underwent surgery, which was deemed successful though a ptosis formed as a result of prolonged inflammation.
A ptosis occurs when the upper eyelid of one or both eyes droops over the eye.
“It is unlikely that this ptosis will spontaneously resolve, and as such, the patient may need future surgical intervention if the ptosis is to be repaired for cosmetic reasons. This ptosis would not be responsible for any loss of vision as it does not comprise the visual axis,” the SERHA letter said.
It said the child was still being monitored as an outpatient because conditions may change as she continued to grow.
The child now wears prescription lenses.
The Gleaner has not yet received a response to questions submitted to the AG’s Chambers on Friday.
“I don’t want anybody else’s child to go through this suffering. The Government needs to look into this. The persons who were involved went off on a little leave, and they’re back in their jobs, and it’s business as usual,” said Neil.
She said she enquired what the outcome of the investigation into the incident was but was told that this could not be disclosed to her.
“I want people to know that it’s not just regular mothers whose children suffer. We as nurses, our children suffer too. It is so sad that this is what the Government has to offer for a child who is six.
“We don’t know what will happen to her when she reaches 20. We don’t know how it will affect her in the future. We don’t know. This is so unfair,” the mother said.