Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles is demanding a probe into the death of Mavis John-Peters, 48, who died at the Scarborough General Hospital on December 20 of stomach cancer.
“I have requested an investigation and report on the matter,” Charles told Guardian Media, in response to a query on whether he had heard of the incident.
And hours before the Chief Secretary’s response, communications manager of the Tobago Regional Health Authority, Marie-Antoinette Mora, said via email that a probe began into the incident.
“Further to your email and WhatsApp message, wherein receipt was acknowledged, please note that the TRHA is currently investigating the matter,” she said
John-Peters, who lived in Delaford, complained of feeling unwell in September and began visiting the Scarborough General Hospital where she was allegedly given Panadol and high blood pressure tablets for vomiting and abdominal pains.
Her husband, Glen Peters, 45, who works at the Division of Health, Wellness and Family Development, complained that the hospital’s medical officials treated his wife “terribly.”
He said he begged health officials to perform blood tests and a biopsy so that her condition could be diagnosed and treated.
“I asked many times for them to do blood tests and any other test to see what was wrong with her, but no one took me on,” he told Guardian Media.
He claimed that “on several occasions, although Mavis was vomiting and in pain, we were told to wait our turn at the Casualty Department, at the hospital. We waited for hours before Mavis was treated with Panadol and sent home.”
He added: “One time after we left the Casualty Department, Mavis got a prescription filled, only to discover that it was high blood pressure tablets.”
When she was admitted to the hospital, “she was placed in a dark room, without air conditioning, with one other patient and doctor (name called) demanded that she be removed from that area,” Peters claimed.
He said because of the treatment at the hospital, he spent most of his money seeking help from private doctors, who told him that his wife “needed to have blood tests and a biopsy before she could be properly treated.”
Peters said he turned to his area representative and Minority Council’s Assemblyman Farley Augustine.
“He (Farley) called around and got some tests for Mavis, but we never got the results,” he said.
Farley documented his experience with the healthcare system and Peters’ situation on Facebook.
“I learned that being an assemblyman (especially a Minority one) ent mean (mild expletive) when it comes to healthcare on the island. You can beg all you want but no one will budge,” the Assemblyman posted