Georgetown: A post mortem on the remains of Rohini Balkaran of Clonbrook, East Coast Demerara, who passed away suddenly at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) on Monday, has failed to determine what led to the conditions that caused her demise. The procedure was undertaken yesterday at the Public Hospital by a Cuban doctor who was able to determine that while the woman had suffered a cardiac arrest and there was evidence of low potassium there was nothing to ascertain what triggered these.
According to the woman’s husband, Chris Persaud, he was informed by hospital officials that since there are some questions pertaining to the woman’s death no death certificate could be issued. As a result, he said that he was told that samples of his wife’s remains will have to be sent abroad for further testing. Reports are that the samples should be sent off shortly and once processed in a timely manner will return by next month. “I have my opinions about what happened to my wife but I am going to be professional about it and let the experts deal with this…I will wait on the results to come back next month…right now I am a bit depressed and so all I can do is wait and see what caused her to die like this,” said a distraught Persaud yesterday.
The 33-year-old woman was a teacher at the Bladen Hall Multilateral School and a student of the University of Guyana, pursuing a Degree in Education. She was said to be of good health and had no prior health complaints other than pains in her heels prior to being attended to by a medical physician one day before being rushed to the Public Hospital with incapacitated lower limbs. A source at the hospital said that the first set of tests done soon after admission revealed low potassium. This is a condition that could cause paralysis and cardiac arrest thus required urgent treatment.
The woman had reportedly been attended to by a physician on the West Demerara, who prescribed medications for pain in the heel. He said that he administered an injection to the woman’s heel the day before she was admitted to the Public Hospital. The injection was triamcinolone after the doctor diagnosed plantar fasciitis which she had suffered from for several months. Plantar fasciitis is inflammation of the thick tissue on the bottom of the foot.
The doctor, when contacted Monday evening, said that he also gave the woman Diclofenac, and a low dose Prednisone, which is an anti-inflammatory drug, with instructions that if there was no improvement then she should take Nimsulide, also used in the treatment of pain. He was at pains to point out that none of these medications could cause low potassium.
The management of the Public Hospital in a statement issued Tuesday said that a review of the patient’s death has been undertaken by the relevant personnel, adding that a pronouncement cannot be made without the results of the Post Mortem Examination.
The dead woman leaves to mourn her husband, three-year-old daughter, parents, siblings and other relatives. She will be cremated on Sunday at the Good Hope crematorium.
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