Psychiatric patient succumbs to burns suffered in NA Hospital fire; Family never told of injuries

Shocked family members are now seeking answers as they have complained that they were never informed of the man's injuries and barely got to see him before he passed away on Friday.

Psychiatric patient succumbs to burns suffered in NA Hospital fire; Family never told of injuries

Two weeks after three patients of the New Amsterdam psychiatric hospital were badly burnt during a fire at the facility, one of the patients has died from his injuries.

Family members have identified the dead patient as 38-year-old Wewoushi King of the East Coast of Demerara.

King was first admitted to the New Amsterdam hospital with burns to his body then later rushed to the Georgetown Hospital where he passed away on Friday.

Shocked family members are now seeking answers as they have complained that they were never informed of the man’s injuries and barely got to see him before he passed away on Friday.

One of the dead man’s sisters, Malika King told News Source today that a post-mortem examination conducted this morning found that her brother died from multiple burn injuries as well as smoke inhalation.

The sister said her brother was admitted to the hospital days before it went up in flames.

She explained that after the family saw news reports about the fire they made several attempts to make contact with the hospital but those efforts failed. According to the sister after she saw officials on the news explaining that all of the family members for the injured were contacted, her family thought that her brother was safe since they were not contacted at all.

The sister told News Source that it wasn’t until the mother made a decision to visit the facility last week that the family learnt after the mother got to Berbice that the 38-year-old man was among the seriously injured and hospitalised.

“My mother couldn’t take it at all and she troubles from hypertension so she came back home and when I was about to go visit the hospital myself, I learnt that he was transferred to the Georgetown Hospital”, the sister said.

She said when she got to the Georgetown Hospital, she walked past her brother in the emergency area because he was unrecognizable because of the severity of the burns.

King said her brother’s face was badly burnt and he appeared to be in a lot of pain as he was being transferred to the burns unit.

One day later, he died.

“We want answers and we deserve answers. We were never contacted and never told of his condition and this is heart aching especially for our mother, who signed the documents for him to be admitted to the hospital. This is tough and who will stand all of this expense now, who will give us justice”, the sister cried out.

When the fire broke out in a section of the psychiatric ward, some of the patients were trapped in the heavily grilled building.

By the time the nurses on duty were able to get them out, a number of them were badly burnt. It remains unclear what caused the fire, but it was spotted just after two of the patients got into a fight.

An investigation into the incident is still ongoing.

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