DOCTORS FACE LAWSUIT OVER FINGER
A 25-year-old Point Lisas technician has threatened to filed a negligence lawsuit against a father and son medical team over the loss of his finger.
Kevin Persad, 25, of Cunupia, through his attorneys Martin George and Company, has issued a pre-action protocol letter to the doctors who operate a southern based private clinic.
Persad said his right index finger had to be amputated in the United States (US), last year, after several failed operations at the private medical facility.
According to the pre-action protocol letter, Persad suffered injury to both his hands while at work on April 17, 2014.
He was admitted to the private hospital where a debridement procedure was performed under local anaesthetic and his wounds were dressed. The following day, an operation was performed and he was said to have had a “full thickness laceration to the flexor digitorum superficialis and the tendon sheath which was repaired.”
Another procedure was performed on April 22, and the wounds were said to have been healing well.
Persad claims he consistently complained about the pain he was experiencing in his finger and the apparent discolouration which was occurring, but these were dismissed as normal occurrences. A wire which was placed in his right index finger was removed on May 15, and an X-ray done revealed that the finger was still dislocated and not yet healed.
Persad received a second opinion and it was revealed that he had a non united fracture of the finger and would need further surgical intervention to reduce and internally fix problem.
He was also advised that blood was not being allowed to circulate freely in his right index finger for a period of time and as such, there was a possibility of losing his right index finger.
Persad said he was told that the corrective surgeries which ought to have been done, were not.
In an attempt to save his right index finger, he flew abroad and in June was examined at the Miami Hand Centre in the US. He was operated on June 13, in an attempt to fix the damaged tendon and nerves, but despite three further operations to attempt to repair the tendons, bones and nerves in his finger, the foreign doctors had no other alternative but to amputate the right index finger.
Extracted From: Trinidad and Tobago Newsday Newspaper
Tuesday, March 10 2015