Health denies claims

By Diedre Fanene 05 February 2016, 12:00AM

The Director General of the Ministry of Health, Leausa Dr. Take Naseri, has denied allegations made by the family of a child who died at the hospital last week.

The family claimed that their boy died after he was given the wrong injection.

But that was not the case, according to Leausa.

 “It’s not the wrong injection,” said Leausa.

“The kid has had rheumatic fever for a long time and the family of the kid have been advised that their son needs to be taken overseas for surgery but they refused.

“The injection was to help the patient and that is the last part of it.”

On social media earlier this week, the grieving mother of the deceased, Fa’amelea Fetutaua Nona, warned members of the public about getting injections at the hospital. 

“To all the rheumatic fever patients, you have to be alert and be careful before you have your injection,” she posted on Facebook. 

The mother added that after her son got his injection, he was halfway out of the door when he collapsed. 

“You might be the next victim if you aren’t careful,” the mother warned.

Leausa rejected the claims.

Asked about the bruises on the boy’s body, he said: “Maybe the infection of the bruises precipitated it because those are all the complications of rheumatic fever.

“Those bruises are like an end, it is called Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (D.I.C) when it gets serious. When something little hits them on the hand or body they bruise or even bleed.”

The Director General said he was waiting on an audit from one of his A.C.E.Os regarding the matter.

In the meantime, he said from what he has been told, reports about the patient getting the wrong injection are wrong.

Leausa also encouraged everyone to go through the Ministry’s Grievance Policy.

“Come and write down what happen, everything they know happened on that day because sometimes we get the records but the complainants haven’t done their part,” he said.

“I’m not aware if the family went through the grievance policy but I’m just encouraging people to do that.”

By Diedre Fanene 05 February 2016, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

Upgrade to Premium

Subscribe to
Samoa Observer Online

Enjoy unlimited access to all our articles on any device + free trial to e-Edition. You can cancel anytime.

>