Man dies after waiting 5 hours to see doctor

COMPLAINING of severe chest pains, a 65-year-old pensioner left  the hospital on Saturday night after a futile wait to see a doctor.
In fact the only time a doctor saw Oswald Jobe was when he arrived dead at the Accident and Emer-gency Department (A&E) of the San Fernando General Hospital yesterday morning. This triggered an outburst by three sons of the deceased man, which resulted in the police being summoned, after the men were involved in an altercation with the security guards.

A hospital source confirmed that Jobe left after waiting five hours to see a doctor on Saturday night. The official said they were short staffed with two nurses and four doctors in six examination rooms. he official warned that the situation would get worse if they are not given the necessary staff. Somebody must be held responsible for our father’s death!” la-mented Anthony Cadogan, surrounded by other teary-eyed relatives at their Khan Trace, Fyzabad, home yesterday. adogan, 31, explained that for the past two weeks his father had been experiencing pains in his chest but on Friday the pains intensified. Cadogan, a security guard, said on Saturday evening he and his wife, Ruth-Ann, rushed Jobe to the A&E department where nurses tested his blood pressure, filled out a card and told him to sit in the waiting room. “My father had pain in his chest and was only squeezing his left hand,” Cadogan recalled.

During the five hours he ex-plained twice to a clerk that his father needed to see a doctor urgently. hen it was after 8 pm, they left the hospital without seeing a doctor. He vomitted in a (hospital) car park and when we went home he went straight to sleep,” Cadogan said. On the brink of tears, Cadogan said his father awoke yesterday morning complaining of chest pains, difficulty breathing and was vomitting. “We started administering CPR and we called the EHS.” He said his brother Junior, 35, assisted the medical technician in administering CPR to Jobe since he was not breathing.

According to Cadogan when they wheeled Jobe into the hospital’s emergency room, the  EHS technician in response to a doctor’s query said that the man had not been breathing  since he left his residence. The doctor checked the man’s neck and pronounced him dead and left.
Cadogan explained that the death of their father, coupled with what he considered the unprofessional and uncaring service of the hospital’s staff, made him hysterical.

Admitting that he began quarrelling and cursing in a loud tone, Cadogan said: “I wanted somebody to hear my complaint but nobody came out.”
Cadogan said he was soon joined by his brothers Junior, 35, and Ray, 28, who also vented their disgust with the health care service. They were approached by three security guards, one of whom pulled out a pair of handcuffs. He said they had a heated confrontation with one of the guards but left before it escalated. escribing the health care service as “stink,” Junior said: “It is time somebody stand up and change the system. Is thing like this that cause people to commit crime.” adogan said his father had seven children and 12 grandchildren. Referring to their father as “the chief cook and bottle cleaner,” he said they had planned to have a special Father’s Day get-together for him yesterday.