[dropcap]F[/dropcap]ew stories recently published in this newspaper have attracted as much public concern as Molly’s, featured on the front page of last Saturday’s STAR. Several readers hinted at their own bad experiences with medical practitioners they accused of negligence. Molly had her own share of empathisers. “What many of them said was they were surprised the whole matter of my baby’s death was still unresolved,” she said. “Some of them at the time were telling me not to give up, things would turn out fine. Now they know how wrong they were.”
The story also inspired many online comments, again from people who had been misdiagnosed themselves, or had relatives who had received shoddy medical attention here. One poster claimed: “Junior doctors are left on their own; unsupervised. This is very wrong. Patients are not lab rats.”
When invited to comment on the reactions to Molly’s story, Victoria Hospital and Ministry of Health personnel said they could not, on the ground that the matter was still pending before a court.
While she did not wish to address Molly’s case directly, Dr. Alisha Eugene, the medical director at Victoria Hospital, provided clarification of the term “junior doctors”, saying that only qualified medical professionals operate at VH. “Sometimes there may be interns looking on during a delivery; that’s how they learn,” said Dr. Eugene. “Then again, senior house officers who are qualified and registered are often referred to as ‘junior doctors’.”
Additionally: “You may also have a situation where a woman in labour comes in who has had more than one baby. If she has no problems, if she’s okay, midwives will deliver her latest. In such cases there is no need for a physician.”
At her last meeting in January with the health minister and other key members of the health sector, Molly was promised a second DNA analysis. She says she was told that the director at the forensic laboratory would contact her but, to date, Molly has not received the call. Her own efforts to reach the director had all proved futile.
On Wednesday, with her newborn son, Gifted, sleeping on her chest, Molly told this reporter: “They would have been brothers. Sometimes I miss Gabriel a lot. You may see me with a smile on my face at times but no one knows what I am feeling inside. I need to know where my baby is and what happened to him.”
