Family protests lack of proper health care

When 22-year-old Jonathan Belix sustained a broken leg in a vehicular accident on August 29, his parents never thought they would be burying him that same week. They strongly believed the nation’s public hospitals were fully equipped with the necessary medical supplies to treat their son’s injury and have him discharged the following day. Around noon on Sunday August 29, Jonathan and a male friend were driving on Olton Road in Arima, when a pick-up truck broke a red light and slammed into their vehicle. Residents in the area immediately called an ambulance and the two boys were taken to the Arima Health Facility.  Jonathan’s leg were placed in board straps and his father, John, was advised to take him to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital since there were no doctors at the Arima facility at the time.

John Belix took his son to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital and, after a two-hour wait, an x-ray was done and Jonathan was warded while he waited for a doctor to examine his leg. Sometime later, Belix was told that there were no qualified doctors available to attend to his son and that he should take him to a private institution. He was given a list of medication to buy at the St Clair Medical Centre, but it was already 8 pm and the medical supply department was closed. Jonathan was taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) and, after a downpayment of over $3,000, he was treated and warded at the Hibiscus Unit. Belix remained with his son until the next day (Monday). On Tuesday, Jonathan’s girlfriend went to visit him but, on arrival, found that he was missing from his hospital bed. She made several checks at various units at the facility, including the Intensive Care Unit and the Same Day Surgery Unit, but was told that only family members would be given information about his whereabouts.

It was only after John Belix arrived at the hospital and pressed the medical personnel to tell him about his son’s whereabouts, that he was told that Jonathan had died from respiratory failure around 1 am that day, and that he could only view Jonathan’s body after doctors had “cleaned him up.” “What really happened to Jonathan that those doctors had to spend hours to clean him up?” Belix asked. He pressed doctors further about the “real” reason his son had died, and what medications they had given him before he died, but was told that another doctor would speak to him. An autopsy was done and it was discovered that Jonathan had died from an embolism, a blockage of a blood vessel as a result of a blood-clot or air bubbles. “The sad thing about this whole thing is that no hospital official contacted me or my family to tell us about my son’s death. We had to come down here to find out,” the grieving father told Newsday.

Jonathan was buried on Friday September 3 and the Belix family still has not received any official explanation for his death. The Belix family yesterday staged a protest in front of the Arima Health Facility demanding that doctors explain the poor health care that Jonathan received while at the three hospitals. “I want to know why none of the hospitals had the basic medicine to treat something simple as a broken leg,” John Belix said. “This is ridiculous because an innocent life has been lost because of the inadequacy of this nation’s health care.” He stated that he contacted Health Minister John Rahael, and called for a full investigation to be launched into his son’s death. No one from the Health Ministry has contacted him to date, however. Jonathan Belix had just completed several courses including Graphics Designs and Business Management and was working at the family photo-processing business Photo House Studios. “Jonathan had a passion for music. He even told me that he wanted to have his own studio. We were already making plans to arrange that,” Belix said.  “He had a lot of potential. He had a bright future and it pains to see that he did not live to enjoy the rest of this life,” he added.

Belix remains adamant that if the Arima facility or PoSGH had the necessary doctors and medication, his son would have lived. He is currently in the process of taking legal action against the Health Ministry. Meanwhile, all Belix has to live with now is the memory of his son. He is planning to set up a Jonathan Belix Foundation in which assistance would be given to persons who are forced to be treated under poor hospital conditions. His intention is to prevent what happened to his son from occurring again.