Loading ...
After Mandy LaCorbiniere was stabbed she was taken to the George Odlum Stadium. Some family members say the makeshift hospital staff could have done more to save her life.
Police have charged a 16-year-old from New Village, Micoud, for the murder of 18-year-old Cindy Mandy La Corbiniere, a form five student of Micoud Secondary School. Mandy La Corbiniere was fatally stabbed on Sunday, January 10 near her home in New Extension, Micoud.
The 16-year-old appeared in court on Monday, January 18, where the matter was adjourned to Friday, January 22, 2010, for the application of bail. The teen is currently being kept in police custody.
On Wednesday, January 13 a post mortem performed on the body of Cindy Mandy La Corbiniere revealed death by hemorrhagic shock, secondary to stab wounds.
Initial reports from family members of the deceased teen cited unsatisfactory treatment at the Vieux Fort stadium, where the St Jude’s hospital has been housed ever since a fire destroyed the southern hospital last year. One relative accused hospital staff of keeping the family in the dark regarding the girl’s condition, insisting that doing so would breech patient confidentiality. The girl’s relative had been on the scene before the teen was transported to the hospital and said she caught a ride with Mandy’s father to get to the stadium that day.
“When I saw the blood on the ground I knew this had to be serious,” the woman said of the scene in Micoud last Sunday. “When I turned I saw a girl sitting on the balcony of a cream house with a white band around her hair. Her hair was messy and she was drinking water. I remember thinking; it can’t be that little girl that stabbed Mandy. She doesn’t even look 13. She was drinking water and she was like, “ugh,” like she was in shock or whatever.”
The woman, who came to St Lucia last month to wed Mandy’s cousin had been instructed to go with Mandy’s father to the hospital to calm him down.
“My husband told me just go with him to try to calm him down and just be there for them,” she said. “We arrived at the ‘hospital’ around 3pm, about a half hour after the incident occurred. I tried to calm him down; he was in a state of shock that his daughter was going to die. I took cold water, put in on his face, and gave him some to drink so he could catch himself. I couldn’t allow him to go in the hospital in that kind of state. I told him I’d go in and find out what was taking place then come back. Sharma, Mandy’s cousin came with me. I told her if anything happened, if Mandy passed away don’t tell him yet.”
According to the woman, one of the biggest problems was the fact that inquiries on the girl’s condition were frequently ignored and that the hospital seemed ill prepared to deal with the situation. At around 6:30pm, almost four hours after the girl arrived to the hospital, doctors approached the family saying that they needed blood and asking whether anyone was willing to give blood. When Mandy was rushed into surgery the girl’s relative said the family was told that the teen was low on blood, and not that the hospital was short on blood.
Additionally, family members say the 18-year-old was taken into a ward, while they stood by not knowing what was going on. Later nurses finally informed the family that she was in a coma.
“When they finally let us into the room she was on life support. It was on 85 and beeping, so I felt at that moment, basically there’s a chance she’s going to live. One of the nurses had this brown thing pumping, then basically the nurse got a call on her mobile, she’s pumping and she’s talking on her mobile, oh, “take the phone, take the phone, I’m going to pass by you . . .”
“I was thinking, what is this? I asked another nurse about her condition and again, I got no response. At that point I said, “Don’t you nurses talk? It’s frustrating, don’t you talk?” Then she responded, “the doctor should have told you what happened.” I said Mandy’s aunt and her father, “well start talking to her, she’s in a coma” and the nurses said, “No, don’t talk to her.”
“I said, so they’re not allowed to talk to her because she’s in a coma? My brother was in a coma and we were allowed to talk to him. He recovered in a week. Why weren’t they allowed to talk to her?”
It was about 7:30pm then and Mandy’s heart rate was still at 85 according to Mandy’s cousin’s wife, when the nurse gave instructions to take the teen off life support because she was breathing on her own.
“I was wondering, how could they take her off, she just came from the emergency room. It was on 85 and I watched as it dropped to 79, then it kept dropping. They waiting until it reached 27, to put it back on.”
“I couldn’t take it any more, I walked out on 47. Then a family friend came out and said, “Can you believe it? They waited until it reached 27 to put it back on.”
“They put it back on and it went back up to 127. It stayed there then went to 119, then to 79, and they had it on pumping. That’s the time they’re saying call the doctors. They announced that she died at 8:30pm.”
On Friday last week, the STAR received a call from Dr Sylvia Wilson. The emergency room supervisor at St Jude Hospital wished to set the record straight.
“At this time St Jude is making a tremendous effort and a lot of things are totally incorrect,” she said concerning reports from the girl’s family. “When the ambulance arrived, everyone was waiting for that particular case because we’d already gotten the call that she was on the way.”
Despite reports from the girl’s family, the hospital representative said the surgeon, physicians, lab technicians and “everyone who mattered,” was present when the teen arrived to the hospital.
“When she came in she was extremely critical, she was in shock. The knife took a major blood vessel and the bleeding was extremely profuse. The surgeon assessed her and knew she was critical, but still we would do the best we could.”
“She should have gone to critical care,” said Wilson, though the hospital representative said there was no way Mandy would have made it to Castries. “Under the conditions, we did the best we could. Even in Castries the child would not have survived. We did the best we could.”
Wilson said hospital staff were all “touched by the violence that occurred in Micoud that day and most worked overtime that evening to try to do the impossible.”
When it came to not responding to family inquiries on the girl’s condition Wilson said, “It’s an emergency situation, there’s no time. We were communicating with the father the entire time. We
told him the situation, and the aunt. There were so many doctors trying to save that girl’s life. We were telling them what was going on at every stage. Everyone was on deck. We did a two hour operation to try to control the bleeding in a major abdominal wound.”
Wilson said hospital staff were disappointed at the negative reports as, “everyone put aside everything else.”
“It was not only the fact that it was a young girl, but personally she’s a young girl from my community of Micoud. I wouldn’t want something like that to happen. The surgeon did a heroic job. Some surgeons would have given up, he did his best.”
RSS
I hope you people at the STAR have learned something from this.
I regret that such a beautiful young lady, had to lose her life over a dispute of this caliber.
Not many things are new under the sun.
Emergency Services back home is joke. We need a fully functional hospital with state of the art equipment. A highly experienced & licensed medical team would be substantial to everyones benefit.
Maybe a Mobile Emergency Unit in every community can be worked on to assist in circumstances such as this one. Its sad a life had to be taken in such a way.
Yes and an emergency helicopter to transfer to Victoria hospital if critical care is needed.
We don’t want another St Judes…..
I think they should have an Ambulance service with Paramedics (EMS) and not EMT’s or a mixture of both. Do like NY and even Trinidad. Firefighters for fires and Highly train EMS/Paramedics for Ambulances. There is a difference between EMT and EMS.
What a waste and over something so petty. But reguardless of what the hospital staff says emergency services at that hospital are a joke, they not properly equiped and as a result they are frustrated and their effort is less than adiquate. Do you really expect them to really come out say we were il equiped to help this girl and as such didnt put in full effort? This is the typical answer and I dont buy it
I think for a moment that some of you are very short minded individuals. This is St.Lucia we are talking about; a third world country. We DO NOT have the money to facilitate a fully functioning hospital…. and now the mention of helicopters!!!! Come on you people. In order for this country to do all the things that some you mentioned, we would have to implement taxes and long list of other things to generate money for the Island. The only thing and I mean the only thing that we have to rely on is TOURISM. Without that we might end up like Haiti. Think about it….seriously!!!
Piton I agree with you 100%, but you will be surprised as to how long that request has been made from even within the fire service and the politics associated with it. We as a people like to be to reactive instead of being proactive, its high time we move away from such a mentality and do whats best for all the citizens and visitors of St.lucia. We definitely have to do something about emergency health care, dealing with different trauma levels at all our hospitals as well as better training and equipment for the first responders to such scenes. A well trained paramedic could have made the decision to transport the victim to victoria hospital initially instead of wasting precious time going to the stadium. Let this young girl not die in vain but let us all learn from it.
They should have a rapid response helicopter in place for these kinds of situations, its people’s lives for god sake.
We need a little more action in this country rather than all that non sense talking, maybe y’all folks from overs should help the country and make a valuable contribution by starting to raise funds for an air ambulance and a mobile surgery unit. Remember guys we dealing with a third world country. It’s heart breaking to hear of Mandy’s death, but y’all it happens in the US too. People did every day. Ciao.
St. Lucians are not foolish. Look at all these well thought out suggestions that are being made. The problem is that those in government will not heed, will not listen and will not take advice.
It will happen again, the same way police officers have little choice but to fire on mentally ill civilians who attack them because they are not well equipt to handle such situations without lethal force.
We need a government that not only listens but implements those wonderful ideas that are coming from the public.
the airport is 5 minutes away, helicoter takes about 7 mns to castries, was the family even given this option? time to train a cpl flight medics so this can be an option given to people in this situation. put it on the list of training (get it from the US or british army). Maybe it could not have helped in this situation, but it may in another. Sincere and heart felt Condolences to the family.
Difficulty and frustration that the St.Judes/stadium staff face is aknowledged and the severity of the situation is another thing that is too long overdue for fixing.
nothing is impossible, so the word impossible not supposed to be used in medical instances.
What a waste of a beautiful young life. What is going on. A child killing a child.
Come on, enough is enough. I hope God gives the family strength to get through this horrific ordeal. May her soul rest in peace.
As to the perpetrator of this crime, one minute of anger will cost you the guilt of what you have done for the rest of your life, was it worth it ? You have now earned the vile title of “Murderer”.
Youngsters, please think before you act in anger, nothing is worth taking ones life over.
Before you reach for that knife or gun, remember you are about to destroy your own life as well as that of your victims. Even if you think you have gotten away with the crime, you will spend a lifetime looking over your shoulder and eventually whether you are caught or not will have to answer before God. There is no escaping judgement, so please just live right and stop this pointless violence against your own sisters and brothers.
I am appalled !!!
I hav read all of your comments and they are all valid in this discussion to hopefully achieve the goal of improve medical and emrgency response in traumatic situation. However we must be realistic about our expectations and the goals set. It is not impossible for a small island like St. Lucia to have first class medical care and rapid emergency response but to get to that goal all of us in St. Lucia including the politicians on both sides and presure goals to recognize our basic responsibility of paying taxes.
We as a individuals are not willing to pay the requiste taxes to achieve these standards in the health care infrustructure and human resoure needed to deliver the service.
I say so because the politicians and leaders have never made it clear to every St. Lucian their responsibility as individuals to contribue to nation building, secondly they also they are willing to be held account for abuses of the nations finances for their individual benefits.
As a country our production level in the few industries that make our economy is significantly below the average developing nations e.g China which we so admire, the Twainese which some of us despise and a the Asian tiger Singapore which is the same size of St. Lucia without any natural resources but in in forty years progress from an under develop 3rd world country to what it is today.
The simple question is how many of us are willing to make the sacrifices the people of singapore and their policitians with vision made so our future genaration can enjoy the comfort of a develop country the envy of the world? This is not impossible in the caribbean it only require the vision, determination, hard work with determination that country first before our inflated egos.
So lets stop the talk a commence a movement for action demanding our politicians and technocrat engage in putting together a national development plan and strategy for our nation. This is the solution to our troubles in the helen of the west.
We, the USA La Corbinieres, wish to express our heartfelt condolence to Cindy Mandy La Corbiniere’s family. Our prayers are with you all during this time of sadness. We pray that God will give the family guidance and strength, because the circumstance of her death is truly a tragedy you, and the family of the person who inflicted such a devastating demise. God be with all of you.
Descendants of John James & Joseph La Corbiniere
We, the USA La Corbinieres, wish to express our heartfelt condolence to Cindy Mandy La Corbiniere’s family. Our prayers are with you all during this time of sadness. We pray that God will give the family guidance and strength, because the circumstance of her death is truly a tragedy for you, and for the family of the person who inflicted such a devastating demise. God be with all of you.
Descendants of James John & Joseph La Corbiniere
Those who are blaming the hospital staff need to stop because the wound was fatal. We are always putting blame in the wrong place. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time and it was all the fault of those who attacked her. This is the same thing UWP did by blaming labour for crime and it still happens under them. I guess it is time to tell the people the truth, that this government is out of its wits in handling the country and even crime.
I could not have imagined that such an act could have have happened in my village amongs youths that age what was she thinking my heart felt condolences goes to the family and friends of mandy I must at this give praises to Dr sylvia wilsonfor theeffort done in trying to save the life of this lady .People of my village stop the bleeding and start the healing . For thoes who may read this i am Ervin from micoud village though i may be away for such a long time i remain a micoudian and not forgetting Dr Sylvia Wilson was my class mate. Family and friends mourn in peace
I do agree that most if not all person are re active rather than proactive..Then again we like it so..We refuse to take our leaders to task and let them know as easily as we put them in we can vote the out.But we are so caught up in “de party menatllity” we lose sight of how powerful we are.yep we are 3rd world ,it doesn’t mean good polices can’t be adopte, or an effort can be made get thingsdone right.
our goverment which ever party has never listened to the peaple (not the hacks) i think they would be amazed at what the average joe public can contribute.
I do not mind paying taxes as long as the needed services are available like, well trained persons who can stablize some one on thier way to hosiptal etc, well equiped and functioning Hosipitals and health centers.I can go on..
it is sad our youngsters just can’t seem to control thier anger
i know this was a tragic case but sometimes people need to be real. I cant belive people are asking for an emergency helicopter and a mobile emergency unit in each community. you people forget is st.lucia u all living it ? thats just not realistic.
think of the amount of money that flows thru the economy.
to Ju Ju. I see no reason why he ca have air ambulance or a helicopter to transport victims from one hospital to the next. some of the non sense this government spends money on and nobody saying anything about that. put the money into some good health care. i live on a smaller island than st lucia (also third world) and they have health services which facilitate medical transport to other islands. why st lucia ca do it too. stop crying for de government, it’s their job to come up with an answer, ppl’s lives are at stake!
So sad, a young beautiful life loss over nonsense. The crime situation in St. Lucia is scaring everybody. I wish her family the best and pray for them in this difficult time.
In situations like this we can find a number of people to blame but the reality of the situation is the system must change to expect better outcome. It is pointless to do the same thing and expect a different result. Trained EMS in the field is one thing but equiped emergency department is quite another. Are the doctors and nurses emergency nurses? I do not think so. This is one time you best was not good enough.
Ju Ju, St.Lucia chooses to put all of its resources in the Tourism basket; They have many natural resources from which they can create industry. At the end of the day St.Lucia operates like most capitalists societies………….for companies and the few affluent people who control industries. Decisions are made between the development and care of the people and tourism, where most of the population receive no direct benefit. St.Judes should have been fully operational by now. I’m always dumb founded by the narrow and limited choices ST.Lucians have convinced themselves are the only alternatives. We can do better.
I would like to sympathise with the family of the young ladys family. I understand what they are going thriugh at this time as i lost my niece in her way to school a few years ago near the convent on the way to Vieux Fort. However, we as St Lucians we need to be aware that the comment we are putting on these sites are being read by people all over the world and what we are doing is selling ourselves and our country short.
I understand we are frustrated, but what are we doing to help the situation with regards to making our hospitals a safer and better place to work and visit?
Application for BAIL… Let justice be served no matter age or gender. What a young girl like that stabbing another for… if you can commit such a crime , take the life of somebody you can FACE the penalities.
Why allow someone to enjoy the job on this earth if they can end the joy of someone else.
This NONSENSE have to stop , why cant children just be children. Why resort to stabbing and killing … WE DIDNT GIVE THE GIFT OF LIFE SO WE AS HUMAN BEINGS HAVE NO RITE TO END SOMEONE’S LIFE. That girl should face the consequence of her action.