Dad blames Rex’s death on negligence by hospital staff

BENJAMIN Wanzing, father of Rex, has raised concerns at the coroner’s inquiry that health services in public hospitals should be improved to avoid more lives lost to negligence.
Wanzing said the purported lack of medical attention given to his son Rex after surgery by medical officers at Port Moresby Hospital had pushed him to raise the concern.
“The government agencies responsible should step up in ensuring that right drugs are prescribed to patients to avoid tragic deaths,” he said.
He said there were so many questions that were left unanswered after he lost his son Rex.
“The PMGH management did not want to release the death certificate of our son to us after he passed away,” he said.
“Prior to his death, he was on life support and due to Coronavirus (Covid-19) protocols, we were not allowed to stay with Rex until his passing.” He said the nurses that were on duty were not prompt when they reached out to help them when Rex was shaking with high temperature.
“The doctors came in some hours later and asked us to move Rex to the ICU,” he said.
“It was a waste of time shifting us from the ward to ICU as the nurses had to look for spare oxygen bottle, oxygen stands and other necessary equipment.
“We went into the ICU to see him one last time and went wait outside.”
Wanzing said it was a clear medical negligence by the medical staff at Port Moresby General Hospital and they needed to improve their response to patient care.
“My son was in a critical condition and there were only nurses responding to him without the presence of the on-call doctors,” he said.
“In the future, they have to make attempts to respond fast to emergencies.” Meanwhile, former Chief Justice Sir Arnold Amet questioned the PMGH chief executive officer Dr Paki Molumi on Monday about why they did not want to release the death certificate of Rex to his parents when he passed away.
Molumi said the death was suspicious in nature and they could not release the death certificate without knowing the cause of death.