‘It kills me!’ - Boyfriend of late Jodian Fearon in anguish
Published:Tuesday | April 28, 2020 | 12:00 AM
Damion Mitchell, Integration Editor
It’s been raw agony for immigration officer Kenton Senior, the boyfriend of the first-time mom who died under controversial circumstances on the weekend hours after delivering their daughter.
“It kills me,” Senior told The Gleaner yesterday.
It was more than 48 hours since the death of 23-year-old Jodian Fearon paralysed the celebration they’d been planning for months.
LISTEN EXCERPT OF INTERVIEW HERE
Late yesterday, Prime Minister Andrew Holness described the incident as upsetting moments after the police announced that they have launched an investigation to determine whether there was criminal negligence. The health ministry has also launched a probe.
Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has promised the strongest possible action and to make public a report on the matter by Wednesday.
Fearon died at the University Hospital of the West Indies on Saturday, six hours after delivering her baby at the Spanish Town Hospital in St Catherine.
She had been at the privately operated Andrews Memorial Hospital on Friday for the delivery, but had to leave after exhibiting perceived coronavirus-like symptoms.
According to her doctor, both the UHWI and the Victoria Jubilee Hospital refused to admit the patient, who at the time was in labour.
Eventually, the Spanish Town Hospital agreed to take her, but when she arrived there in an ambulance, the facility was not ready to accommodate the woman.
After a C-section delivery, Fearon’s health deteriorated and she was rushed to the UHWI for further treatment, where she succumbed hours later.
Yesterday, as Senior again muscled up to face life without the woman he said changed his life in so many ways, he was still angry.
“I grew up watching my grandmother saving people’s life in the country area, delivering children out of their mothers, and now to see something like this happening to my own … this is just sad,” he said, insisting that he would not accept any excuses.
Painful memories
Senior was also critical of the Andrews Memorial Hospital, which has released a statement saying the C-section delivery at the facility was called off after Fearon’s physician’s team of independent anaesthesiologists refused to participate in the surgery.
“I was trying to man up and play the tough guy, the macho man, but mi nah tell no lie, every time I look at the baby and then look at Jodi’s picture, sometimes mi just break down. It’s very hard,” he said.
Now, Senior, 41, holds dear November 1, 2018, the first time he laid eyes on Fearon.
But even more secure in his heart is the kindness with which she treated his two other children, and the passion and purpose with which she pursued life.
Senior also recalled how motivated Fearon was to complete her studies at The University of the West Indies last year.
“She kept saying she’s doing this for Mommy, because her mother was very insistent that she finish up university,” he said.
The father of three said it was the same drive with which Fearon approached planning for their first child, writing in detail all they would do with their newborn.
Up to yesterday, the newborn was in perfect health, according to Senior, and he will now endeavour she lives the dream her mother conceived.