Cornwall patient ends up dead under bridge - Widow wants explanation from hospital authorities

WESTERN BUREAU:

A St James family is demanding answers from administrators at Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) about how a man who was admitted to the Type A facility on Saturday turned up dead under a bridge in downtown Montego Bay the following morning.

The deceased has been identified as 50-year-old overseas farm worker Raymond Deans of Springfield district in St James. According to the man’s widow, Winsome Deans, he was taken to CRH on Saturday with dengue-like symptoms and was admitted.

Mrs Deans, who is also 50, said that she initially dismissed the news of her husband’s death while she was preparing breakfast to take to him on Sunday.

“I told [someone] that it was not him because he was in the hospital,” the grieving wife told The Gleaner. “I fed him dinner on Saturday and left him in the hospital, and that was where I expected him to be.”

The wife said that she resumed preparing breakfast but subsequently got another call from a neighbour, who recounted a similar story about her husband being dead.

“I became worried and started to cry. I hurriedly rushed off to Cornwall Regional Hospital, and when I got there, I saw my husband’s personal belongings, but his bed was empty,” the woman said.

Mrs Deans said that a nurse on duty was baffled when she inquired of her what had happened to her husband.

“I want some answers, but nobody is able to tell me anything. My husband was not a mentally challenged person, so he would not have just left the hospital like that without even taking his personal belongings with him. I need to know how he ended up under a bridge which is almost four miles from the hospital,” the wife said.

Under investigation

CRH’s Chief Executive Officer Charmaine Williams-Beckford confirmed with The Gleaner that she had received a report on the matter and that it was under investigation.

When quizzed about the protocol governing patients leaving the hospital without being discharged, she said it depended on where the person was being treated.

“If the person is in the A&E (Accident and Emergency), that person could leave without requiring permission,” said Williams-Beckford.

According to police reports, about 8 a.m. on Sunday, Deans’ body was seen partially submerged in water under the North Gully Bridge, behind the St James Parish Court. The corpse was pulled from the water by the St James Fire Department.