BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Nov. 12, 2015–Well-known street figure Arlie Andrew Avilez, 51, also known as Andy Avilez, of Ordonez Street, Belize City, died at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital on Sunday, October 25. Doctor Mario Estrada Bran, who conducted the post-mortem on the body, declared that the death was due to cardiac thrembo-embolism due to acute cerebral aedema resulting from brain hemorrhage/head trauma.
The autopsy was carried out on Monday, November 9, at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, 14 days after Avilez died at the hospital.
Police reported that on Friday, October 9, Avilez was involved in an altercation with a businessman on the Philip Goldson Highway after he was accused of stealing from a restaurant located on the Philip Goldson Highway.
During the altercation, according to police, Avilez allegedly beat the reportedly Chinese proprietor with a piece of iron. A struggle reportedly ensued and both persons ended up in a nearby drain. Police took both persons to Belama Police Station, where medico forms were issued.
According to police, Avilez was arrested and charged with the crime of wounding. He appeared in Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, October 13, and pleaded guilty to the charge. In court, however, Avilez reported that he had been beaten when he had gotten into a fight with the proprietor of the business, and showed his medico legal form to the magistrate, who gave him a strong warning and released him.
Two days after he was released by the court, however, on Sunday, Avilez went to seek medical attention at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital and he was admitted to ward for 10 days before he died.
His family, however, told Amandala that they were unaware that he had been admitted and had even died, because despite the enquiries, they were told that he had been discharged.
In an interview with Amandala today, his elder sister told us that on Wednesday, October 14, she went to the KHMH to look for her daughter, who had been taken to the hospital, when she was informed that a bed was being prepared for Andy Avilez.
She then went to see her brother, and saw that his head was swollen and he was unresponsive. She tried to shake him to wake him, and that was when a doctor told her that he was in a coma.
Avilez’s sister left the hospital, but came back the next day. She was told, however, that he had been discharged.
On Sunday, November, 1, Avilez’s sister was at a pre-election rally when she felt a strange coldness, she said, and she got the feeling that something was seriously wrong. She immediately went back to the hospital and enquired about her brother, and, according to her, she was again told that he had been discharged.
But while talking to the nurse, another nurse who knew her asked what was happening, and the sister replied that she was looking for her brother, Andy Avilez. The nurse then investigated, and after about ten minutes, came back and told her that her brother had died on Sunday, October 25, and his body was in the morgue.
Avilez’s sister said that she screamed, because she had had been seeking her brother, he had died 7 days before, and the family had not been informed.
She said that he was treated as a “John Doe,” and after the post-mortem, which certified that he died due to brain hemorrhage, an investigation was conducted and he was identified.
The sister said that they were not negligent, nor did they abandon him. He did not live at their house but lived with his brother on Ordonez Street. She said, however, that there should be better accounting for patients at the KHMH. She said that her brother was a drug user and a thief, but he was not violent, and despite what he did, he should not have been beaten to such a degree.
She is calling on police to carry out the investigation and arrest the man who beat him so badly in the head that he died.
Police have reopened the case. The file will be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions after the investigation is concluded, for further directives.
Andy Avilez was buried yesterday at the Eternal Garden Cemetery at Mile 13 on the George Price Highway.