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Northern Medical Plaza Says Baby Dulce Was In “Fragile State” Before Surgery
posted (September 13, 2013)
Last night, we spoke to the Tun family from San Roman, Corozal who say the doctors at Northern Medical Plaza are to blame for the death of the 15 day-old baby, Dulce Maria Coye. The family is claiming that medical malpractice contributed to the death of the child which was diagnosed with congenital pyloric stenosis, a rare and complicated condition.

We made very exhaustive attempts to get comments from the personnel at the Northern Medical Plaza for the past 2 days, and they refused to even acknowledge that baby Dulce received treatment at their medical facility.

Today, finally, after repeated requests from the media, the hospital responded to the family's claims in a statement. We'll get to that shortly, but first, to one part of the story which didn't make it into the news last night: Baby Dulce's family was outraged that the hospital expected them to make payment for the second surgery, and for medicine which Baby Dulce received.

Her grandfather explained that he took out a loan of $4,000 to pay for the surgery, and, after that he found it unbelievable that Northern Medical was expecting further payment, given the outcome:

Sergio Tun, Grandfather of Deceased
"The doctor came and sat down close to me and tell me that he needs some more money. I told him that I will not pay any more money because I had taken out a loan."

"When they took the baby to Belize City he wanted to collect more money for the medication. I told him that I will not pay him anything more."

Rosa Tun, Grandmother of Deceased
"My family is in shock. I don't know what happen to the doctor. I paid the money to get the operation done on my child."

And while baby Dulce's family have all this grief, anger and pending doctor's bills to cope with - the other issue is the hospital accused of performing the surgery which led to her death. Yesterday, Marco Tulio Mendez the man widely EEN as the principal of Northern Medical Plaza yesterday told us that he had no direct knowledge of the case of Baby Dulce and that the only person able to explain the situation is the physician who performed the surgery.

That's quite remarkable, since Mendez recently displayed a quite exhaustive knowledge of the cases of apparent malpractice at the Northern Regional Hospital. But this case, in his own hospital, he claims to have no knowledge of. And it wasn't only Mendez; today, the Northern Medical clammed up; it had no comment and told the media it was getting advice from its lawyer - who has issued a statement which we'll get to shortly.

But while the Hospital Administration is within its rights to "lawyer up" - it's not quite that simple for its Principal, Dr. Mendez. As an elected representative for Orange Walk East, he is a public figure - and one who has used that platform to rightly speak about the unfortunate string of pediatric deaths at the Northern Regional Hospital. He did so in November of 2012, and, for context, we re-visit those remarks tonight:

Hon. Marco Tulio Mendez
"After hearing the stories of these patients; mothers suffering - when you see them depressed, devastated and in grief, that loneliness that they are going through - it really makes you wonder. It makes you wonder what the hell went wrong."

"Now Mr. Speaker, there are many patients. I just want to briefly give you some of them. We have Ms. Magdelena Chable, 41 years old. She reported that she had a raptured bladder and a child with severe asphyxia."

"If you may allow me Mr. Speaker I just want to show; this is an image of that baby. We always say that photos are worth more than a thousand words. This cat-scan of this baby - has suffered brain damage, I would say millions of brain cells that have died. This child won't be able to speak, walk, and learn. This is not the only patient. We have Ms. Coh, 17 year old patient - just a teenager. Her baby has severe asphyxia. They had reach at a timely hour at the hospital. They did their pre-natal care and yet that baby has severe brain damage. That baby will have disability for the rest of the life."

"Now we have Mrs. Alicia Pott. A very brave woman who went through 3 operations and ended up at the KHMH almost dead. It is very important for the Minister to come out with a statement. This is not personal Minister and I hope that you are not personal on this occasion."

And today, Tulio Mendez is the one who did not make a statement; that came from his attorney and the man who endorsed him for political office, Marcel Cardona. It says that, "It is with some regret and…hesitation, that the Board of Management of Northern Medical Specialty Plaza is forced to respond to recent reports…which allege that the unfortunate death of a one-month baby girl, Dulce Maria Coye, was somehow… connected to the medical attention which this child received at our Clinic."

The statement explains that bay Dulce was, quote, "brought in for medical evaluation and treatment, in a very fragile or weakened state…following a week-long of attempted…treatment elsewhere for….'Congenital Pyloric Stenosis.'"

The statement adds that Northern Medical Plaza treats an average of three cases of "Congenital Pyloric Stenosis" per year, and this is the first time quote, "in which a child did not survive the treatment." End quote.

But the release goes to say quote, "that in any medical treatment or medical surgical procedure, the chance or likelihood of survival is not guaranteed to anyone."

The release also disputes what the child's grandmother Rosa Tun told us last night, saying, quote, "independent radio-diagnostic test(s)…following her first surgery at our medical facility, and before her second surgery did NOT show or indicate the presence of any foreign object inside the body of the child…. medical personnel at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital in Belize City have also confirmed that no such foreign object was found inside of the body of the child…"

The release concludes, quote, "the child's untimely and rather unfortunate death is directly attributable to the already weakened physical state of the child upon obtaining our medical treatment."

We note that the child's alleged "weakened state" is mentioned three times in the release - which, had we the opportunity to question her doctors - we might have asked, why was this not considered before putting her through two surgeries. But, again, they have refused to make themselves available to the media.

Today, we attempted to get further information about the last moments of Baby Dulce's life. The attending physician at the KHMH, who took over the case after she was transferred, is part of the Cuban medical brigade, and is barred from commenting in the press.

So, we tried speaking with pathologist, Dr. Hugh Sanchez, who conducted the autopsy at the KHMH yesterday. He declined comment, he told us to contact the KHMH Public Relations Office.

That office told that they would not comment on Dr. Sanchez's incomplete autopsy report, and that it would be premature to do so. That last part is strange, because as we told you last night, the hospital released Dr. Sanchez's certification of the cause of death to the family. That death certificate, which says that the autopsy was completed yesterday, notes cause of death as septic shock due to peritonitis - basically an internal infection, as a consequence of surgery which was conducted to correct congenital pyloric stenosis.

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