The family of the late Luis Rodriguez, 77, an official of the Forestry Department until his premature retirement due to an on-the-job accident, is in mourning after his untimely passing around 8:45 Wednesday morning at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital in Belize City.
But Rodriguez’s family’s story starts at the Northern Regional Hospital in Orange Walk Town, and for all intents and purposes, it should have ended there, according to them, if the doctors there had paid more than cursory attention to Luis’ apparent urinary problems.
His son, Ruel Rodriguez, told Amandala at the KHMH Wednesday that his dad had been taken to the Northern Regional on the morning of Friday, November 6, complaining of severe abdominal pain and shortness of breath.
At the emergency section, Luis was admitted and checked over, then sent for X-rays and a blood sample. The family stayed with him for most of the day, as he was confined to the bed in the General Ward, where a “Hispanic male” doctor whose name Ruel does not know told them Luis would have to stay overnight. Still short of breath, Luis was put on oxygen.
Around 4:00 p.m., Luis Rodriguez’ condition worsened and a male nurse informed the family that his stomach was distended and that was why he was unable to breathe, but could not definitively say what was wrong.
The doctors checked on Luis’ condition until 8:00, when he was hooked up to an echocardiogram (ECG) machine to check his heartbeat and pulse, and a cardiologist for the NRH, a Dr. Barbosa, was sent for.
After an examination, Dr. Barbosa determined that there was a blockage in Mr. Rodriguez’s intestines and that an “immediate” operation was needed to clear it, but said he needed to consult with the hospital’s general surgeons.
An hour later, a Dr. Coleman, a surgeon, arrived at the hospital and examined Luis himself, concluding that Luis needed to find a way to pass the fecal matter blocking his intestine.
At this point, Ruel told us, the family had left the hospital, but a member who stayed behind called them around midnight to say that Dr. Coleman had discovered a severe infection in the bowels, but claimed that the resident anesthesiologist and surgeons skilled in handling this problem were not available, and so the operation would have to be performed 90 minutes away at the KHMH.
According to Ruel, as soon as his father arrived in Belize City, doctors at the KHMH rushed him into surgery. The attending physician, Dr. Emerson Munguia, later said that a portion of Luis’ large intestine had to be removed, as well as 8 pounds of feces, and stressed that had the Orange Walk doctors acted sooner, the complications would not have developed.
Luis Rodriguez languished in the KHMH from Saturday morning, through all of Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday before passing away on Wednesday. Dr. Munguia told the family that toxins in Luis’ digestive system from the stalled feces overwhelmed his body’s defenses and the surgery was not performed early enough to save him.
Rodriguez’s kidneys also failed, he said.
According to Ruel, his family had had to take their father to the NRH for treatment twice prior to this latest and fatal visit. While he was able to pass liquid urine, solid waste was a different matter.
A post-mortem was conducted at the family’s request on Wednesday. According to the death certificate shown to Amandala, the cause of death was “septic shock, renal failure and acute pulmonary edema due to internal obstruction from fecal matter, leading to a severe megacolon.” (“Megacolon” is the medical term for an enlarged colon, or large intestine.)
Ruel says that on advice from Public Relations Officer at the KHMH, Gary Ayuso, he made a formal complaint to the administrator at the Northern Regional on Tuesday. He has yet to hear from them. He stresses that he was satisfied with the performance of Dr. Munguia and the officials at the KHMH, while deploring the inaction of the doctors in Orange Walk.
We attempted to reach the regional manager for the Northern Health Region at her Orange Walk office, but were told she had gone to Corozal. When we called the Corozal Hospital, we were informed that she was in a meeting.
Luis Rodriguez is survived by his wife Emilia and their eight children, five boys and three girls. Funeral services have not yet been scheduled.