We publicly commend and thank the staffs of the Cumana and Toco Health Centres and the Casualty Department and Ward 5 of the Sangre Grande Hospital for the care and efficient attention given to my daughter, Katherine-Ann Pyke.She was bitten by a mapepire snake on December 21 and taken to the Cumana Centre; the Toco Centre was phoned and alerted. When we got to Toco, an attendant with wheelchair was waiting, the doctor was pacing in the doorway and the ambulance was ready.
She was attended to and sent to Sangre Grande, which is apparently the only snake-bite treatment facility in Trinidad, or so we have been told. She was bitten at 11.20 am and signed in at Sangre Grande at 1 pm-one and three quarter hours for driving and including treatment at Toco first.From our home to Toco, to Sangre Grande is approximately 40 miles, and the Toco Road is not built for speed. We especially thank the ambulance driver and the nurse who went with her.Anti-venom and other medications were administered and multiple tests were performed before her discharge on the Thursday afternoon.
When she was asked if the hospital treatment had been satisfactory, or would she have preferred to have gone to a private facility, she said she was glad she had been taken to the Sangre Grande Hospital.As the anxious parent, I was well-treated (and tolerated at her bedside) and kept informed.On behalf of my husband William and myself, thank you all again, and may you continue to provide your very necessary service.
Roberta Pyke
Cumana Village, Toco