Former EHS worker languishing at hospital

HEALTH Minister John Rahael was on Friday asked to assist 29 year-old Prudencia Dyer who broke a bone in her spine while carrying out her duties as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) for the Emergency Health Service of TT (EHSTT). The request was made by Stephen Thomas, first vice president of the Public Services Association when Rahael visited the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) on Friday. He told the minister that Dyer had not been seen by the consultant neurosurgeon for over a week. Speaking to Newsday, Thomas said Dyer was only getting painkillers and prescriptions for medication unavailable at EWMSC.

“When friends visit her they are given the prescription and buy what they could afford. You can’t treat a member of the health system like that.” Thomas said if those who work as caregivers in health were suffering what was left for the rest of the public. “When we talk about quality service. This is a live example.” Speaking from her bed at the Adult Surgical ward where she was warded for nine days, Dyer said, “I just want my job and be normal. I want my daughter to be going to school.” Dyer, from Longdenville, Chaguanas told Newsday that she was injured on September 20 while she and her colleague were attending to a call at Malick Hill. The patient was a man who was stabbed by a relative. Dyer said the patient’s house was located down a precipice and after securing him on the stretcher they encountered problems getting out. They fell down three times.

Dyer and her co-worker took the patient to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital and they also received treatment. She was warded but did not remain hospitalised because she had a four-year-old daughter. “I got medication to carry down the swelling and they said if I had any problems go to the health centre,” said Dyer. It was when she went to the Chaguanas Health Centre on September 23 that she found out that her fifth lumber vertebra was broken. She was advised to get a back-brace. She sent in a sick-leave to  the South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) but was told that they could not cover her medical expenses. In October management of the EHSTT was transferred from  SWRHA to Global Medical Response of TT (GMRTT) and Dyer found herself unemployed.

When the pain became intolerable at home, she decided to go to EWMSC. Her four-year-old daughter had to help her dress. Dyer said over a week ago she was supposed to see the “head doctor.” Another doctor who reviewed her medical notes was surprised how she was able to walk and said she should have been paralysed. The broken bones in her spine have fused and she is now bedridden. Dyer is distraught about her future. She began the process for owning her own home but now she is unemployed.

A friend is taking care of her four-year-old daughter who has her own medical woes and already had three surgeries for birth defects. She said no official from the SWRHA or GMRTT has visited her. With tears staining her cheeks, she recalled her sleepless nights when Panadol failed to ease her pain. “The whole night I groan. I get painkillers and it knocks me out  but when I wake it’s pain.” The Health Minister has pledged financial assistance and she hopes this happens and her case is not a “political thing.” Dyer is thankful for the nurses who try and “help out” and former EMT batch mates who put money on her phone so she could talk to her daughter.