Dr Darville feels ‘unfairly attacked’ on Kenise Symonette-Darville inquiry

Health Minister Dr Michael Darville.

As of Monday, May 1, 2023

KENISE Darville passed away at Princess Margaret Hospital while waiting for blood.

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville said the husband of Kenise Symonette-Darville, the woman who died at the Princess Margaret Hospital earlier this year after complaining in a viral video about PMH’s treatment of her, has unfairly attacked him.

The Tribune reported on Friday that the Public Hospitals Authority’s report on the woman’s death found she was “acutely ill” and died “despite all the efforts by the clinical team, including nursing, physicians, and laboratory staff".

The report does not directly address the woman’s claim that PMH failed to order additional platelets for her in time.

The woman’s husband, Jerad Darville, said he is not satisfied with the report, calling it a narrative summary of what happened to his wife, not an investigation into how the staff treated her. He has called for Dr Darville to resign.

Speaking to The Tribune at the end of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) conference on Saturday, Dr Darville said: “First of all, I'd like to extend my deepest condolences to him and his family. I realise that the circumstances are very painful. And it's very difficult for me as minister to go into the details surrounding the entire case. One of the things that is so painful to me is that I believe that I am being attacked unfairly simply because, as minister, I don't have the capability to go into details as it relates to the circumstances surrounding the demise of his wife.”

Dr Darville said he couldn’t discuss the matter because it may be subject to legal action.

“As a physician who has practised medicine for just under 30 years, one of the things that is dear to my heart is first and foremost, to do no harm to anybody," he said. "When I believe that I am not living up to that expectation, it is best for me to exit the profession. And so, it's very painful for me when I am being attacked as being a cold and callous person, someone with the carriage of delivering health care for the country.”

He continued: “I cannot go into the parameters of the report. The report was written, and the investigation was done by the professionals of the Public Hospitals Authority. I stand by the professionals of the Public Hospitals Authority. And so, the detail of the report is not for me to go into. If it's a medical-legal issue, there's always the issue where lawyers will discuss the parameters of the report.”

More like this story

stillwaters 1 year, 6 months ago

Darville, man up. You got the position and the buck stops with you, maboy. You thought it would be just sauntering around, doing photo ops, talking crap, and posturing eh?

ThisIsOurs 1 year, 6 months ago

She was immuno compromised and contracted COVID. They reported that the day before her death she complained of difficulty breathing. We know that is a telltale sign of COVID and that COVID has a devastating impact on persons with compromised immune systems, inclusive of death. We saw it over and over in 2021. The question is how did she contract COVID while in hospital and how was her COVID infection treated. how she was treated over the course of her stay is a completely separate matter

ThisIsOurs 1 year, 6 months ago

"treated" as in customer service

rosiepi 1 year, 6 months ago

As Health Minister he understands the buck stops with him, to whinge on is just plain embarassing. "The report was written, and the investigation was done by the professionals of the Public Hospitals Authority. I stand by the professionals of the Public Hospitals Authority."

If he stands by the report, it's authors and inaccurate statements he's foresworn his oath of office and is suborning it's effort to avoid the finding of a lack of duty for care, perhaps even criminally liable malpractice.

"Any report, ie. investigation of causality should not be done by the institution that fatally mismanaged a patient’s car. Especially one such as PMH long riddled with gross mismanagement.

The facts and dates do not line up with the end result PMH has deliberately crafted, so acute obfuscation is the diagnosis here.

Ms Symonette-Darville was admitted to the ER on Jan 4th and her initial diagnosis was Leukemia and given a Flow Cytometry Test which has a turnaround time of 2-3 days/stat- 24 hours as per UF website. However her test results were read approximately 20 days later.

She was placed in an “isolation” room at some point before her Jan 11th video which clearly shows her feverish, and not isolated as per hospital standards for an immunocompromised patient whose caregivers are likely not vaxxed a 2nd time and/or boostered.

Her Covid test wasn’t administered until Jan 16th, so clearly she acquired Covid at PMH but she was not placed in the Legacy Unit (acute Covid facility) until midnight on Jan 18 and less than 8 hours later she was dead.

So she was “awake, conscious, alert and breathing w/non-breather mask” but not transferred until she rushed to the unit at midnight on Jan 18th??

And as per the ‘report’ this “acutely ill” woman was told on Jan 11th she must mount her own campaign for blood donations!

Perhaps this acute case of neglect and malfeasance should have been investigated by the RBPF.

My sympathies to her husband and family." Rosiepi

The Tribune