Nurse didn’t suffer a spinal injury – Doc

WESTERN BUREAU:

Following emergency surgery this week, doctors have determined that a nurse who fell down a flight of stairs at the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) in Montego Bay, St James, was not as badly injured as previously thought.

Following Annakay Myrie’s fall, reports surfaced that she had suffered life-threatening spinal injuries and that, if she survived, she might not be able to walk again.

However, in responding to the speculation and fears, Dr Delroy Fray, the clinical coordinator at CRH, has flatly dismissed the reports about the severity of Myrie’s injuries, saying she had only received head injuries for which she had received prompt treatment.

“Don’t listen to nonsense; it was a head injury she got, and that was addressed immediately. The nurse is in the intensive care unit and we are waiting to see how her case will be resolved,” Fray told The Gleaner on Tuesday.

“We don’t want to comment any more right now, because patients’ medical problems are something that is confidential,” added Fray.

He nonetheless confirmed that there was no witness to the incident and, as a consequence, the cause of the nurse’s fall could not be determined.

“We don’t know what happened, but we were told that it was one day last week when the nurse fell down a flight of stairs, hit her head, and she got a head injury, but nobody witnessed it,” noted Fray.

“The good thing about it is that she was treated expeditiously and she got the best treatment by the neurosurgeon, which we can offer anybody with that condition, and we trust that her situation will have a good outcome,” added Fray.

With regard to the monitoring of the nurse’s injuries, Errol Greene, chairman of the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA), said constant contact has been maintained with the her family members following the incident.

“We’re in touch with them every day, and we’ve also obtained counselling for the rest of the staff,” said Greene. The nurse’s mishap at the CRH has happened at a time when the Mt Salem-based Type A hospital is undergoing restoration work in response to noxious fumes which forced an evacuation of the facility’s first three floors in 2016.