AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Belize Life News Child dead at childbirth: lack of Health Facility

Tsk, tsk. Sticks and stones...

As reported, Tropic did respond when called. That is laudatory community service and they should be recognized for it. Apparently that's not enough for you and Mike. So how much more do you think they "owe" the community, Dick?

My argument was with Mike Campbell putting the problem in their lap to come up with a solution. People running for public office should pay better heed to what they write. It is not Tropic's problem to solve. It is a community (indeed national) problem.

Again, without mandate Tropic responded when called. Kudos to them.

I think mike was comitting on there total refusal to help out. This is not the first time.

So how much more do you think they "owe" the community, Dick?

really...

I apologies if I step on anyone toes, typical bunch a talkers and no doers, but you guys argue over a stupid thing. Here is a family that is devastated because of the lost of their child because of two things
1 There is no certified/approve child birth facility
2 No emergency air ambulance available for island residents.
Whoever provides that transportation service in a time of emergency do it to assist the community. No commercial nor private airline is force to provide such service. As for wings of hope, they are based at municipal airstrip which has no lights. BDF defender is not working due to a none functional propeller, Astrum is not certified to fly at night.
No one is to blame but the GOB who has neglected this community period. We need people to stop talk a bunch of shit and elect people that will fight and give this island what is deserve.

I am not sure how you thought I was putting the problem in Tropics lap. My comments were aimed at the emergency access to the air field being blocked to emergency traffic, necessitating a taxi to get to the plane as opposed to taking them through the gate which has all been explained and was I had imagined. Of course Tropic will allow emergency traffic.
I asked what happened and i never said or implied that Tropic did or had ever done anything that was reproachable. They have always contributed to our community in many ways and I do business with them regularly. If I offended them it was unintentional.
My question still stands which was what went wrong with our system. I personally could not imagine Tropic not responding to such a situation. They have always responded in the past to the best of my knowledge.
Why did it all take so long and why was no doctor waiting in Belize?
We all owe our businesses to this community 100%.

Stop covering your ass Mike

Still dont know why it took so long, at least they backed off the total shut down of the emergency access, thats a win right?

MINISTER MANUEL HEREDIA RESPONDS TO ISLANDERS' CONCERNS

April 29, 2011

A mother lost her child on Ambergris Caye on Thursday due to the lack of proper and adequate health facility and transportation off the island. The issue has caused uproar amongst the island's population and today the Area Representative met with media on the island.

Jorge Aldana reporting....

"In a knitted community like San Pedro Town, where everyone practically knows everyone, what affects one family affects the community. Such was the case when a mother lost her unborn child due to the lack of a proper and adequate health facility on Ambergris Caye. It's another wake-up call for the elected officials and today, that was the sentiment that dominated the local airwaves. It's a situation that needs urgent attention. In an early morning press conference Area Representative Manuel Heredia lamented the incident and said that he is prepared to take the matter once more to Cabinet to avoid such occurrences to ever happen again.

Manuel Heredia - Area Representative, Belize Rural South

"It is my duty to really look into the matter because I can recall that when BATSUB had announced that it would be leaving Belize we knew that there will be problems if we did not have their assistance and I can recall that it was mentioned in Cabinet and that we were going to look into the possibilities at what other arrangements can be made not only for San Pedro and Caye Caulker but also down south which is remote areas of the south. I feel that steps are being taken. I do not know, but I will speak to the Minister responsible for Health and Defence and see what is the latest on that because if that is the case then something urgent needs to be done so this type of incident not to occur again. Any life that is lost is something serious. San Pedro is a very united community and when an incident of this nature happens it is the talk of the island and it truly hurts everybody including myself. Whoever loses a child particularly in this manner, probably if it is for transportation or inadequate equipment then I have to make sure that I look seriously into both areas, better facility which I am sure by July we can have extended hours. I think it will be more doctors, more nurses. If we have difficulty trying to get air lift services then our duty is to make sure that we do everything we can to equip our local poly clinic to the extent, probably upgrade it to a hospital because we are isolated from any other area, it is a big town, and we are becoming one of the biggest. We should be given the priority and the assistance that we deserve."

Again Minister Heredia assured the island residents that he will take the matter to the next Cabinet meeting for urgent attention.

LOVEFM

There is no "system" in place for emergencies on the island.

This has been discussed at great lenghts in other threads. The island is in serious need of an Emergency Medical System.

This is a post from last year. This is not a new problem.


It's nice... and a bit frustrating I suppose... to see this thread start again. As part of Bandage International, my colleagues (emergency room docs, advanced paramedics, and nurses) and I have been to AC 8 times, runing training sessions with ACER, hotel staff, and whoever could and would come.

Our goal from the start was to set up a chain of survival system where an injured/sick person could be met by a first responder and transferred to more appropriate care with increasing knowledge and ability to act. We have trained over 500 people in country but the goal of keeping this "system" in place is elusive because the players change and it only seems to get "popular" when something happens.

We have gone so far as to offer (to mayor and area rep) coordination of setting up a non-profit ER on the caye to to help bring in volunteer physician and medic staff from Canada/US in high season. Any and all donations would back to the clinic and all followups to the local docs to help smooth the political waters. Also expressed pleasure to work with the locals docs. In the end, No interest.

We tried to have an emergency health summit last year. The phrase "herding cats" comes to mind.

The bottom line is that having a real chain of care is by no means impossible but requires citizens (expat and local), government, and business to make this a priority and sit down and sort it out. Until that happens, good will and good effort by many bringing equipment and instruction will help a bit but never really attain the syste that is optimal.

As always, we are happy to participate in this process in any way we can with planning, ideas, time, and money, but it really needs to be taken more seriously by more people at the same time.

As always, I love the place and the people but feel a little frankness is required in this conversation. Hope to see you all soon.

Dr. John

btw Costa Maya has an AED and have staff trained in its use and there was one at the South Neighborhood watch station.

Possibly now the area rep will do what is right. Politics controls all our health care, just a few months ago our area rep could not even get funds to fix the roof on the PolyClinic, now he says we will expand the hours and get more doctors. That still will not fix our situation. WE MUST HAVE A HOSPITAL. Obviously there are many who wish to help us but have been prevented from helping as much as they could by politics.