Ministry will be guided by medics

Health authorities have defended their decision to delay announcing the death of a nine-year-old girl from complications associated with COVID-19.

Both Minister of Health and Wellness Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic and Director of Medical Services at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), Dr Clyde Cave, maintained that thorough investigations had to be completed before it could be disclosed.

News that the child had passed away on Sunday from Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) was reported by news outlets in Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica yesterday.

She is the first child in Barbados to die from MIS-C.

And while not speaking specifically about the circumstances regarding the girl’s death, the medical director gave every assurance that in all instances the best possible care is given at the QEH.

“As the physician responsible for overall care I can tell you that I have reviewed all of our cases, especially recent cases, and I am not only confident, but pleased that the highest level of care that could be delivered anywhere was delivered from our ICU.

“It is also important I think, for the public to recognize that even when there is a sad outcome like a death, it does not mean that everything that could be done was not already done,” Dr Cave said.

During a press conference this morning, Minister Bostic said he was shocked to see the regional reports on the child’s death.

“Let me say up front that the Ministry of Health and Wellness, in these matters we are guided, and as minister, I am guided by our medical officials and the medical officials had reported up to the day before that there were still some tests being run and that they were not in a position to make any confirmation and therefore the ministry could not do anything else.

“If it is one thing that I try to assure each time I meet the press is that I personally don’t like to speak unless I am absolutely sure, unless I have the facts so that I bring truth to any situation that I am dealing with with the Barbadian public,” Bostic said.

“I was just as surprised as you were to have seen those things in the press.”

Dr Cave explained that MIS-C was a new disease that had been discovered less than a year ago.

He said it was believed the condition was COVID-19 related and afflicted children who had recovered from the respiratory virus.

The noted paediatric specialist said initial studies had shown Afro-Caribbean children and overweight children were at higher risk of catching the disease.

While conceding that the development had been “a topic of discussion among the Barbadian public”, Dr Cave maintained it was important to have all the facts before coming to the public.

He said the fact that the child’s death was first reported outside of Barbados was no fault of local health authorities.

He noted that the information was most likely passed on through discussions between experts in Barbados and Trinidad.

“I don’t think it is an indictment for people who are thorough that they are not necessarily the first to run with preliminary news. As I understand it, the announcement from Trinidad was not from an official source. It came through the medical community and what you will appreciate is in Barbados we are very proud of our paediatric intensive care unit.

“Whenever in the region we have new, exciting but different cases, these experts here share with their colleagues who have experience and the closest paediatric intensive care unit would be in Trinidad so there is always discussion. There are times when we share medication when we are called upon to share stuff that we have with them and vice versa and that case discussion did occur. There was never any expectation for that professional discussion to make its way into any public announcements outside of the country,” Dr Cave admitted. (RB)