Silent heart attack killed Dawn

The late Clerk of the Senate, Dawn Dolly suffered a small, silent  heart attack during the days leading up to her operation (for the removal of fibroids) and it was the complications associated with it which led to her untimely death. This was the finding of the St Clair Medical Centre Hospital Death Review Committee. The committee’s conclusion was revealed by its Chairman Dr Ronald Henry, Medical Chief of Staff at St Clair Medical Centre, at a news conference yesterday.

Henry said neither Dolly’s clinical evaluation prior to her entry into St Clair, “nor her own sense of well-being revealed any suggestion of this heart attack.” He admitted if an ECG (electrocardiogram) had been done, it would have showed she had a heart attack. Responding to the committee’s statement, Dolly’s sister Avril said she was “very distressed” and “disturbed.” One of  the things which had her “totally upset” was the fact that a simple ECG which could have picked up that her sister had a heart problem, was not done. However, Avril said she was not willing to give a comprehensive comment because she still had to discuss the matter with her eldest brother, who lives overseas. Henry stressed that all the protocols used for her care were scrutinised by the committee and found in all instances to fall comfortably within the existing guidelines for appropriate anaesthetic and gynaecological care.

The medical chief said a recent executive medical evaluation performed by a totally separate tertiary care organisation (which Newsday learnt was the Eric Williams Sciences Complex) had apparently indicated Dolly to be at low risk of heart disease. He said, therefore the doctors (at St Clair) involved in her care, performed the customary clinical evaluation for a 44-year-old woman presumed to be at low risk for a cardiovascular event. “This, though adequately performed on the morning of her admission, failed to reveal the silent heart attack,” he asserted. Henry added that Dolly therefore proceeded to what was otherwise routine anaesthesia and “well performed surgery.” He said it was during the recovery period that complications of her heart attack “supervened,” taking her life.