Pathologist contract comes to end

Dr Burris is already on leave and effective today Dr Hugh Von Des Vignes will be rostered for the entire week and the following week Forensic Pathologist Dr Valeri Alexandrov will be rostered.

Dr Alexandrov told Newsday that he is unsure if any new arrangements will be made but he questioned why no proper arrangements were made to have a permanent pathologist in Tobago to deal with autopsies in the sister island.

According to Dr Alexandrov, on his return from vacation last Monday he was asked to carry out the autopsy on the body of a two-year-old child who drowned in Tobago and whose body remained in the mortuary in Scarborough for 19 days.

According to Dr Alexandrov the family was very traumatised and he said that he tried to comfort them but feels that this should never have been allowed to take place.

“According to the Federal law in the United States if an autopsy is not done within three days the families are entitled to sue the state or county for moral suffering and the family can be awarded as much as US$150,000.

This situation in Tobago is unacceptable and last December there was a situation in Tobago where there were eight bodies and the Minister of National Security had asked to get rid of this backlog, I did it because of the compassion I had for the families and now this situation is repeating itself in Tobago, and if the existing pathologists are recruited by the government of Trinidad and Tobago it is their moral obligation to provide services to Trinidad as well as for Tobago”.

He said there is one pathologist who did not do a single autopsy in Tobago for the past year. All the autopsies were done by Dr Burris and myself and I want to know why?”, demanded Dr Alexandrov.

“I don’t understand why a pathologist who is supposed to be working like everybody else is given the preference of not doing their job. I have raised this matter with several persons including the Minister of National Security and the Permanent Secretary and others.

They have assured me the issue will be resolved as soon as possible but I am not seeing any results.

So at this point if the pathologist does not resume his services for Tobago, I will stop doing autopsies in Tobago as well, and if they want to fire me they are welcome”.

He said that he is already 70 and is considering retirement in due course