Tonight Senior Counsel Rodwell Williams is at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami Florida in critical but stable condition. The prime minister's law partner was shot when he left work just after 8:00 on Monday night. This morning in Miami, doctors did another surgery to control the bleeding in his abdominal cavity. It is the fourth surgery that has been performed on him. The five doctors who worked as a team on the first three surgeries today held a press briefing to explain that Williams had 10 perforations to his intestinal area and lost an incredible volume of blood - so much that when he got to the hospital his blood pressure was zero over zero.
Dr. Emerson Mungia, General Surgeon - KHMH
"He came to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the left abdominal area without exit. When we opened the abdominal we found about 4 liters of blood inside, he had a severe bleeding. The blood pressure was 0-0. We try to transfuse lot of units of blood. Practically he had about 10 injuries to the small bowel. One of the main veins that goes to the heart was affected, and the vein that takes the blood to the intestine got damaged too. We repaired everything. In this specific case, the patient had a severe bleeding, we did 3 operations in less than 12 hours to try to save his life. We receive patients with this kind of trauma everyday but unfortunately this kind of injury he had was one of the most severe injury we saw in Belize in 6 years. This patient was very close to dying. This kind of injury is very critical, most of the time 90 percent of the patients die even in the operating theater. This arrow shows the entrance of the bullet and immediately the bullet damages the junction of the stomach and the intestine. That area has a lot of arteries where the blood flows to the entire intestine. The bullet damages the vena cava vein that carries blood to the right side of the heart. When you have this kind of injury the patient will die in 2-3 minutes sometimes. This is why he is lucky to be alive, most of the time the patient dies before they arrive in the emergency room."
Dr. Ervin Gabourel
"We have to mention that the abdominal cavity is full of big bore blood vessels and they will bleed with lots of pressure. it's just takes a little tear in the integrity of the wall and you will have severe bleeding and that was basically what was the main problem."
Dr. Emerson Mungia
"In the first operation he lost about 4 liters of blood, the total blood loss was about 10 liters. Practically we have about 4-5 liters of blood in our body. He lost about 2 times the blood in his body. We had to replace with 10 plasma cells of blood to try to keep the blood pressure in his body. Normally most patients that has this type of injury do not arrive at the hospital, they die when they get gunshot. Fortunately he survived."
Dr. Jorge Hidalgo
"Practically he lost all his blood, so all the clotting factors within your blood were just wash away by him losing all that blood. He had to be replace with 20 units of blood and about 10 plasma. It was a heroic effort on everybody's behalf and its very important that the Belizean public knows that this was a team effort."
Dr. Jorge Hidalgo, Intensive Care - Belize Health Care Partners
"Usually those cases have very mortality. Even though he has more stable his condition is still very critical. The time that the brain is not getting enough blood can be a factor; it is very early to say. When he is more stable they need to assess the neurological function and also the organs functions."
The surgeons were Doctor Emerson Mungia and Dr. Salvador Pagagua - both surgeons at the KHMH who treat about fifteen gunshot injuries a month. Dr. Pedro Arriaga was the first doctor to see him and they were assisted throughout by an anesthesiologist. Their effort was Herculean and they stress it was a team effort with resources from the public and private sectors. The Prime Minister leaves for Miami tomorrow to see Williams who we stress is still critical and in a coma. The PM returns on Saturday.
And while we know all about the medical situation for Rodwell Williams - most people want to what is the status of the police investigation? Who did it and why?
Well there are no definitive answers but the consensus is that it was an attempted contract killing. What may have motivated it is an area of uncertainty. But here's what we do know. First, Williams had intimated to close associates that he had received information that someone he won a case against had become upset when judgment was enforced. Enforcement in this case meant the forfeiture of property. Information had come back to Williams that the person whom the judgment was being enforced against was intent on harming him as an act of revenge. Again that is just a theory but one that needs to be studied as Williams had information which led him to take it seriously.
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