A La Romaine man believes he sustained spinal, abdominal and nerve injuries after he slipped on a wet floor at the San Fernando General Hospital.
However, Kevon Reviero complained that he visited the hospital’s casualty department twice in severe pain, but was discharged without being properly examined.
“I feel although they’re treating me like someone who fell in their backyard while playing on wet concrete layered with moss,” said Reviero, 36, a self-employed computer technician.
The father of two boys, ages seven years and 17 months said he now has to restrict his movements because of the pain. This is proving to be a challenge because he works from home and has to take care of the children while his wife is at work.
Recalling the incident, he said on Monday, March 9 he and his wife took their baby to casualty because he had diarrhoea and was vomiting. Their other son was also with them. He said shortly after 8 pm, he, together with his family and an attendant, was passing through the bridge which connects the old hospital to the Teaching Hospital to get to the paediatric ward when he suddenly slipped.
He said, “As we entered from the entrance by the maternity ward at the old hospital, not far from the automatic doors, I slipped and twisted my body in an awkward position. I did not fall. I felt pain in my waist area from my abdominal to my back. It was a little bearable. I noticed it had water on the ground. It came from the condensation dropping from the overhead air condition.”
Reviero said he took photos and a video of the area. While the doctor was attending to his son at the paediatric ward, Reviero said the pain got excruciating.
“The pain began spreading to my legs, arms, neck, chest and my head started to hurt as well.” He left his wife with the baby just after midnight and went across to casualty. After he related to the doctor how he slipped on the hospital floor, he was sent for an x-ray.
He said the doctor told him he has no broken bones and he probably had soft tissue damage. He was given pain medication, a prescription for pain killers and sent home. His baby was also discharged, but on Wednesday his baby again fell ill, as well as his wife, and they returned to the hospital.
While at the hospital, Reviero said he was changing his son’s diaper when he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen.
“The pain got worse and they had to get a wheelchair for me to hold my son as they took him up to the paediatric ward to be warded.” That night Reviero again went to the Casualty department for treatment. The doctor told him that the painkiller they gave him was causing his abdominal pain and prescribed an antacid.
But he said instead of getting relief, the pain continued and on Friday he visited the La Romaine Health Centre.
The 36-year-old said the doctor indicated that he could have a pinched nerve and advised him to do an X-ray on his back.
When he returned to the clinic the following Tuesday with the X-rays, the doctor told him the scans showed “narrowing in my neck.” The doctor advised that he get further tests, including an MRI, but did not give him a referral letter to get it done at the hospital.
“I want the hospital to do a proper examination and testing of my spinal cord and abdominal area, including an MRI, ultrasound, CT scan and any other tests because I am in a lot of pain and this happened because of the hospital’s negligence. There was no signage that the floor was wet.”
Reviero filed a complaint at the hospital’s public relations office, but no one has contacted him regarding the incident.
Guardian reached out to the South West Regional Health Authority on Thursday but up to press time yesterday no response was forthcoming.