“I never expected he would die – he was such a strong person, a good person, my right hand… this is an epidemic, it is long past epidemic stage.”
So said Floreth Slusher, the mother of Evondale Young, 31, a security guard of Tombstone Lane, just off Elston Kerr Street in the Collet division of Belize City, to Amandala this morning as we sat talking with her about the passing of a man in his prime, a breadwinner and father of four young children, three sons and a daughter, all less than ten years old.
Evondale Young was not taken by an assassin’s mistaken bullet, or targeted for destruction for reasons unknown to him. But his apparent death from dengue hemorrhagic fever (a post-mortem will be conducted today at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital to determine the exact cause) is no less tragic, because in the view of his bereaved family, it was eminently treatable, if not preventable.
Last Sunday, August 1, Young told his eight-year-old daughter, Jada, that he was not feeling well, and that he suspected he had some dengue symptoms. Mrs. Slusher was in Orange Walk at the time, attending the United Democratic Party National Convention at the People’s Stadium. Floreth says she was directly told by another of her sons of Evondale’s condition two days later and advised him to visit the doctor.
Evondale had gone to the Matron Roberts Health Clinic on Magazine Road on Monday and was treated and given medication for the fever, which appeared to abate briefly.
However, it returned, and the KHMH took in the security guard for observation on Wednesday of last week, but he was kept in the Emergency Ward despite his frequent complaints of pain. Doctors gave him IV drips and an injection to deaden the pain.
According to Floreth, the hospital’s tests for dengue fever ran on Thursday morning came back negative, but she has been told by anonymous hospital workers that the hospital’s equipment in that regard are not in working condition. There was no other diagnosis given for Young’s condition.
Later on, Evondale began complaining of a feeling of paralysis in his limbs, and the doctor in charge (whom the family could not identify) inserted a tube into his penis, as if, Floreth told us, he had a problem with his kidneys (“stoppage of water”).
On Thursday afternoon, Evondale went into cardiac arrest and was rushed into the Trauma Room and put on the ventilator. A doctor attached to Belize Healthcare Partners Limited who was called in by the KHMH told the family that they had just called him in and that from his observations, Evondale’s chances to survive were “slim”, at the most “50/50.”
Stating that they would know more in about 12 hours, he prescribed a blood pressure medication costing $300 and requested that a family member take a blood sample to a private facility for testing.
The tests run at Belize Medical Associates came back positive for both regular dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever, but by the time they were brought to the KHMH, Evondale was in a coma.
Meanwhile, Floreth had gone to pick up the blood pressure medication at the BHPL and ran into the doctor she had seen at KHMH, but he had nothing new to tell her.
When the dreaded call came at 3:00 a.m., Floreth, knowing the outcome, sent her husband and son to the hospital. They returned with news of Evondale’s passing, the body already stiff on the bed when they got there.
Asked what the family would do now, Floreth told us wearily that because of her family’s ethnicity and placement in society, “we will get no justice,” and asked only that the hospital conduct a thorough investigation, not just with the “big people,” but with the “small people” who know what is going on.
As for preventing the disease itself, Mrs. Slusher told us that when she was young and living at the corner of Dean and West Streets, the drains were directly treated to get at the source. The current method of spraying in the air wastes the chemical, she stated.
(A Ministry of Health spray truck was at the premises just before 10:00 a.m. when Amandala visited.)
She also recommended “bun oil” as a “common-sense” means of eliminating the problem.
Evondale is survived by his parents, two brothers, one sister here and another in New York, U.S.A., his common-law wife and their three sons and one daughter, and many other relatives and friends. Funeral services are scheduled for Thursday, August 12, 2010, at St. Martin de Porres Roman Catholic Church at the corner of Vernon and Partridge Streets at 2:00 p.m.
The third confirmed death is that of Karen Hernandez, 7, who lived in Bella Vista, Stann Creek District. She died on Friday, August 6, from what appears to be dengue hemorrhagic fever.
Funeral services were held for her on Saturday in Bella Vista.
The death of the little girl was described in a telephone conversation with Amandala this afternoon by the village’s vice-chairman, Sergio Dorado, as “an example” for the villagers, many of whom he describes as “uneducated” about the effects and treatment of dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever.
Karen began complaining of fever and pain last Monday and was taken to the Independence Polyclinic, where she was treated. Her mother and grandmother took her home, according to Dorado, then rushed her back to the clinic after her symptoms returned.
Tests for dengue came back positive, and she was rushed to the Southern Regional Hospital in Dangriga Town and then to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital in Belize City, where she, too, died on Friday.
According to Dorado, the loss has devastated Karen’s relations, who are not Belizean, although he could not say where they were from.
In the wake of Karen’s death, a public awareness campaign has begun in earnest in the village and village residents banded together on Sunday for what Dorado called a “massive” cleanup of the village, which he informed us continues today.
Amandala sought an audience with the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital’s chief of staff and Director of Medical Services, Dr. Bernard Bulwer, with specific regard to the cases of Evondale Young and Karen Hernandez, and in general, for advice for Belizeans on how to handle dengue. We called Dr. Bulwer just before 12 noon today, and he asked us to send our queries to him by e-mail.
We did, and this was his response, beginning right after the confirmation of Young’s post-mortem today, reproduced verbatim:
“The issue of dengue-related deaths—like those reported in Trinidad and other countries—is of great importance to the Belizean public, and to us, and I raised this question at an emergency meeting with the Ministry of Health last Friday held at the Central Region (Old Nurse’s School).
“They indicated that they are facing the public on this matter, with more engagements, as it is important…I was shown a map…with Collet, Lake I, and Port Loyola being places where most of the mosquitoes are breeding.
“However, Dr. Pitts and Marenco are the experts on this and I think it is in the public’s interest that you make contact with them at MOH.”
We were told this afternoon by the hospital’s new public relations officer, Sheena Garnett, that this was the hospital’s position at this time.
Following Dr. Bulwer’s suggestions, we called the Ministry’s offices in Belmopan on all three available public lines several times this afternoon, but each time the phone rang off the hook.