Little Kaweesha's unfortunate death!

 

Dengue patient Kaweesha rejected by Sri Jayawardenepura Hospital because of strike ....
dies in private hospital

It is well known that because of the nurses striking which took place some days ago and as a result of work being at a standstill, several lives were unfortunately lost in the process.

14 year old Kaweesha Oshada Wickramaratna, a student in grade 9 of Maharagama Janadhipathi Vidyalaya was known to be suffering from dengue fever last Monday (12) and with all that she was refused admission to Sri Jayawardenepura Hospital  saying that the required treatment could not be given there because of the strike of the nursing staff. However, according to rules applying to the strike, there was no room for such action to be taken by them.

Though these helpless parents had no financial means of seeking treatment at a private hospital, instructions given by doctors later of Out-Patients department they subsequently took steps in admitting the child to the private hospital Neville Fernando Hospital in Malabe. But even by that time, the blood platelet count had dropped to 2000 and the patient had not been responding to treatment for 5 days and finally passed away most unfortunately on Saturday afternoon.

It was understood that at the government hospital, Kaweesha was not even given saline and because he was rejected admission, Kaweesha's mother had fallen down on her knees and pleaded for a blood test after which it came to be known that the child's case was that ofa confirmed case of dengue.

Mother of deceased Kaweesha said that even in spite of understanding the child's condition, the lady doctors of the OPD had been unkind enough to refuse admission to the patient. Whatever it is, Kaweesha was admitted to Neville Fernando Hospital in Malabe not because they were in a position to pay the bill.

After the death of Kaweesha, since the parents were obliged to pay a sum of Rs. 4 lakhs and 78,000; and if they could not, they were not permitted to remove the body, which circumstances then rendered them even more helpless.

Kaweesha was the only male child in the family and he had two younger sisters. B. Anura Priyantha, the father earned his income as a labourer. The mother, Kanthi Lanka has no occupation.

On the occasion of removing the dead body, it was former Urban Council member Mrs. Chandrika de Soysa who came to their aid and she has informed this situation through Senior Minister A.H.M. Fowzie to Director of the private hospital in Malabe, Dr. Neville Fernando. With a sum of about a lakh collected from benefactors they had managed to remove the body from the hospital.

What Dr. Sachindra Gamage, Director of Sri Jayawardenepura Hospital said in this connection was that at a moment when a strike was in progress and when the strikers had given their consent to treat patients of this condition by admitting them to the hospital, rejection to admit this patient was a serious offence and that he is very sorry about what happened as a consequence. He further said that he would make an immediate inquiry into this matter and would take measures to take disciplinary action on those who refused to admit this patient to the hospital.

Funeral rites of Kaweesha's body was conducted yesterday.