Dead girl’s father gives evidence

12 March 2013 07:53 pm - 5 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

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Giving evidence at the inquest into the questionable death of a five-year-old girl at Nawaloka Hospital, Colombo, the father told Court yesterday that the hospital management had inquired from him what he wanted from the hospital management after accepting the fact that something untoward had happened to his daughter at the hospital.

40-year-old Ratnayaka Mudiyanselage Thilanka Kaushalya Ratnayake an engineer by profession told Court that the hospital management had convened a meeting on February 5 in this regard. “I participated in that meeting along with my wife and my uncle. The management told me that some accident had occurred. They asked me, “What do you want from us?” In reply I told them, “I want my child back,” the witness said.

When the magisterial inquiry into the death of the five-year-old girl came up before Colombo Fort Magistrate Gihan Pilapitiya, the witness told Court that one of the professors who participated at the meeting told him that the hospital management could not take the responsibility and the doctors should be held responsible.

The witness further told Court that during another meeting convened by the hospital management on February 6 he had asked them what they would do about the death of his child. “They told me that they had nothing to do with the incident and told me to do what ever I want. They told me they would not mind if I take legal action if I revealed the facts to the media. Then they called the Slave Island Police and said that I was behaving in an aggressive manner,” he said.

Mr. Ratnayake further told Court that he had arrived from Singapore on January 30 in order to participate in a conference and got to know his child had suffered from minor symptoms similar to a fit on three occasions. He said that even then his daughter had called him on the phone and told him that she was eating rice.

“I went back to Nawaloka Hospital on February 2 at around 3.45. I went straight to the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) of the hospital and saw the steady child with several tubes attached to her body. I asked the doctors and nurses what had happened to my child. All of them avoided giving me a straight answer and asked me to wait for 24 hours,” the witness said.

The witness told Court his daughters eyes were covered with sellotape and he observed a secretion from her nose and ears. “When I told them her body was cold, they put her on a warmer machine. On the fourth day I saw ants entering her nose. I also saw her nails had turned blue,” he said.(Lakmal Sooriyagoda)

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Comments - 5

Calistus Jayatilleke Wednesday, 13 March 2013 07:36 AM

Accountability is a never heard of virtue in this country with the ruling politicians leading the brigade.

The God Father Wednesday, 13 March 2013 07:53 AM

I feel the pain of a father, the private hospitals will do anything to make money , its not a surprise that they would keep a dead body in an incentive care to rip off some more money.
Hope this father is well compensated and this incident is thoroughly looked in to.

ANTON Wednesday, 13 March 2013 08:14 AM

This gentleman should be praised for bringing out injustice without accepting bribes from fat cats. Your daughter has already been made an angel in the heaven.

MH Wednesday, 13 March 2013 10:16 AM

They must bring the doctors,staff involved and the hospital to the court and bring the truth out. they might pay money to the lawyers but lawyers should support the family who is grieving due to a mistake and that life cannot be brought back.

PRASANNAJIT Thursday, 14 March 2013 06:15 AM

Tragic. The lawyers who try to cover up these things becuase of money should suffer along with the doctors.

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Dead girl’s father gives evidence

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