THE EDITOR: I take note of recent newspaper headlines and feel heartbroken for both parents of the premature babies and the staff at the general hospital's NICU.
Imagine losing babies in a cluster as a result of something that may be beyond your control. That must be frightening as I am certain no health care worker goes to work purposefully seeking to endanger a life or to damage someone.
As a population, our appetite for the gruesome and salacious has grown so much that we revel in carnage. We hear of multiple murders or the beheading of a child and do not try to look at systemic issues that led to these gory incidents. We are happy with the details and headlines.
I remember once being at an accident and trying to help the victims while most people stood by with their phones pointed at the scene. I recall a woman saying, "Yes! I like ting like this,” as she recorded the victims lying on the roadside groaning in pain, some of them bleeding. A person later died as a result of this accident.
A few weeks ago, in Port of Spain, a man was gunned down in the middle of the street and cars just drove around his body as people carried on with their life and journeys. Who or what have we become?
This recent tragedy in the NICU has unearthed many public perceptions and an expectation that every baby rushed to an ICU will live, irrespective of if that babe had all the necessary bodily functions to live, especially if it was born prematurely.
By some of our media irresponsibly reporting inaccuracies and employing sensationalist headlines, their readers miss the bigger tragedy – that no medical professional currently training abroad will ever want to return to TT, given the local atmosphere surrounding the public health sector.
Can you imagine the NICU staff now? While we gorge on details of these NICU deaths, they, as professionals, must continue with their work, with other babies hooked up on ventilators, putting fluids into tiny veins and ensuring all babies and parents are given the support they require. All of this while also having to cope with the mental stress of being in an environment where so many babies recently died.
And on top of all of this, thinking to themselves, "I love this job, but I will leave Trinidad and do this in a more caring and supportive environment." We run the risk of our professionals leaving. And when this happens, then we will really see the meaning of crisis.
Researching on this bacterial outbreak, I have seen that – as unfortunate as it is – such outbreaks happen everywhere in the world.
Every NICU in the world has recorded such or even worse outbreaks.
No one at the PoS general hospital's NICU will ever be the same after this latest tragedy. If we keep painting our healthcare professionals in such a negative light, without first delving deeper into underlying issues, TT may be worse off when they decide they have had enough and leave for greener pastures.
STEPHEN GEORGE
Port of Spain
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