two-year-old disabled after a ‘routine check-up

Frustrated: Mother Lersean Rodriguez, holding her two-year-old child Kiara
 and grandmother Mizan at their home in Bagatelle, Tobago yesterday.
 —Photo: ELIZABETH WILLIAMS

A routine check-up at Mt Hope Hospital in 2011 has left a Chaguanas family wishing they had stayed at home. 

The family claims two-year-old Kiara Rodriguez is now disabled after several needles were injected into her back.

Grandmother Mizan Rodriguez says she would never forget the day baby Kiara was admitted to Mt Hope Children’s Hospital for feeding observation, when she had trouble breathing and slipped into an unconscious state.

“By the time I got back to the hospital with my sister at the time, because we lived in Chaguanas, Kiara was unconscious lying in a pool of blood with doctors and nurses around her,” said Rodriguez.

The family blames officials at the hospital for the state of baby Kiara.

“Now she has cerebral palsy. We had taken her to a private doctor that diagnosed her with cerebral palsy. So its cerebral palsy with global developmental delay.”

Rodriguez said it’s hard to see her grandchild in this state, after she entered the hospital a healthy baby. She said she has met other mothers who have had similar experiences.

“It’s really hard to know that after having a healthy baby, now you have to look and see that child is a vegetable and maybe for the rest of her life.”

The family, which has now made Tobago their home, said when they attempted to seek financial aid from the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Division of Health and Social Services they became more frustrated.

“When she went back they said they lost her file. So she have to do the paperwork again. This is not an easy thing to go up and down to ask a doctor for a report.”

THA Health Secretary Claudia Groome-Duke said she will look into the matter.

Source:trinidadexpress