DOCTORS FOR DOCTORS

Instead, his mother Quelly-Ann Cottle was left shaking her head in stunned disbelief on hearing that the Council of the Medical Board of Trinidad and Tobago had cleared Dr Chinnia of any wrongdoing arising out of the baby’s death.

“As far as I am concerned I was like...’how come they went through this thing and didn’t call me in to tell me what happened, how it happened?’ If you are doing an investigation, you have to call the victim.

I was no part of that, so how come they can find him innocent without calling in the person to whom an injustice was done? My whole take is simply this, doctors will always stand up for doctors and they will always have each other’s back.

Poor people will always have to suffer,” said a disgusted and angry Cottle.

A report, obtained by Cottle’s attorney Michael Coppin, determined that Dr Chinnia, “did not commit any infamous and/or disgraceful conduct in accordance with Section 24 of the Medical Board Act (1960).” When called on during the meeting, Chinnia said Cottle had a complicated pregnancy with severe pre-eclampsia and had oligohydramnios (a condition in pregnancy characterised by a deficiency of amniotic fluid). He stated that he proceeded with due care in the C-section procedure.

Chinnia also put forward that he had “performed 500 plus procedures independently with no adverse event” and that he remained in constant contact with the patient till the next day. Cottle repeatedly requested a copy of the Board’s report, but was denied this until attorney Coppin wrote to the Council and only then did she eventually receive a copy. She got the first look at the report at Coppin’s office off Gordon Street in Port-of-Spain, yesterday.

The Council held a meeting with Chinnia on October 14, where they addressed two major concerns: Failure to obtain approval and assistance by a consultant to assist with the C-section; and failure to exercise proper skills expected of a trained and competent doctor that resulted in a wound penetrating through the skull to the right of the midline, through the bone and periosteum involving the right parietal lobe of the brain which led to hypovolaemic shock due to uncontrolled blood loss for baby Simeon Cottle.

CUT PENETRATED BRAIN In layman’s terms, baby Simeon bled to death after receiving a deep cut to his head sustained during the C-Section surgery. The laceration was deep enough to penetrate brain tissue. Coppin received a representation order clearing the way for him to represent Cottle’s interest after such an order was sought in the High Courts before Justice Mark Mohammed on December 1.

Coppin said the matter has been a challenge since it was a case that has never been prosecuted or even brought to the High Court under these circumstances.

He said they now had a claimant, “who we can now bring up an action for,” Coppin said yesterday.

“The report seems a bit cursory.

The minutes presented to us doesn’t speak to any in depth investigation.

It doesn’t seem that the report was fully ventilated. It lacks substance for something that is so important...so tragic. And for them to deal with it in such a cursory manner tells me that something is wrong. This is a tragedy of national proportions and I was very disappointed with the content of that report,” Coppin told