The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

After reading an article in The Tribune, about how tourists were treated at the Rand Memorial Hospital in Grand Bahama, I decided to write about my experience at Accident & Emergency at Princess Margaret Hospital in Nassau.

On June 27, 2017. I fell and injured my shoulder. As I had no one at home to help me, I was forced to call an ambulance. When it came I was shocked to see an old vehicle, that looked like it came from the junk yard, instead of one of those new ones that I see driving around town with the lights flashing.

The steps on the back of the ambulance were quite high, for an eighty-year-old short person. Anyway I was able to climb in, there was a bed, one attendant and a driver. I did not see any life saving equipment.

On the way to the hospital, the ambulance was shaking badly. I asked the attendant what would happen, if this ambulance had to take a seriously injured person to hospital shaking like that. She said: “It would not matter, because they would probably be unconscious anyway”.

My paper work and X-ray was done in good time.

After this they put me in a bed, and rolled me over by the wall and left me there. Knowing the reputation of the PMH Emergency, I was able to find someone who could go with me. From time to time this person would go to the desk and ask for a pain killer for me. They would say “when the doctors changed their shift, someone would take care of you.”

About 7:00 p.m. a man with a brown suit, came and put a needle into my arm. I thought they were going to hook me up to an “IV” to give me a pain killer. The man went away and about two hours later my helper went to see about some help for me, and they said that they had already given me a pain killer. Well they put the needle into my arm, but it never got hooked up to anywhere. Every time we asked for help they would say “When the shift changes”.

I am an eighty-year-old diabetic and I was not offered a drink of water. I was there over sixteen hours and no one asked how I was doing! About 1:30 a.m. on Monday, morning a lady with a white uniform came and told me that she was going to put a cast on my arm.

As I was leaving the hospital about 3:00 a.m. on Monday, I found the “10” tag that should have been on my arm was on the floor.

If I had died, how would they know who I was? “Jane Doe”. Where would we be if God were not on or side!

PLEASE DO NOT PRINT NAME

Nassau,

October 2, 2017.