Cop sues J’can health authorities over leg amputation in US
Published:Monday | September 18, 2023 | 12:07 AMBarbara Gayle/Gleaner Writer
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A policeman whose right leg had to be amputated above the knee, because of a gunshot injury he suffered in September 2017, is contending that it was negligence, lack of proper care and treatment at two local hospitals that led to the removal of his...
A policeman whose right leg had to be amputated above the knee, because of a gunshot injury he suffered in September 2017, is contending that it was negligence, lack of proper care and treatment at two local hospitals that led to the removal of his appendage at an American hospital.
Corporal Marvin Marsh, 44, has sued the Western Regional Health Authority, the Southern Regional Health Authority and the attorney-general, seeking millions of dollars in compensation.
Senior attorney-at-law Anthony Williams, who is representing Marsh, said he was now back on the job, but Marsh was disappointed that he could no longer perform regular foot patrol duties which he loves or go to court.
“No amputation and suffer death or amputate and live. Those were the two choices available to Marsh when he got to the hospital in the United States,” Williams told The Gleaner yesterday.
Marsh outlined in his claim filed in the Supreme Court last week that he was admitted on September 18, 2017 at the Falmouth Public General Hospital and underwent an emergency fasciotomy surgery to the right leg/thigh region. He said no fasciotomy surgery was done to the right lower leg where he received the entry gunshot wound. Consequent on the unskilled care and management of his injuries, he said he requested to be discharged and that took place on October 5, 2017. He was subsequently admitted to the Mandeville Regional Hospital from October 9, 2017 to October 28, 2017. He said during the period, he underwent several fasciotomies on his right upper and lower limb, but because of unskilled care and management, his condition deteriorated.
He contends that there was failure or neglect to administer any proper or effective medications to him so as to prevent the fasciotomy wounds to become infected.
ALLEGED NEGLIGENCE
Marsh had to seek emergency medical consultation and treatment on October 29, 2017 at Kings County Medical Hospital in New York, where he said he suffered an above-the-knee amputation because of alleged negligence at the Mandeville and Falmouth hospitals.
The defendants are being blamed for failing to provide a staff of professional medical men to act in accordance with a practice accepted as proper by a body of medical men skilled in the field of orthopaedics and/or general surgery to deal with compartmental syndrome, secondary to gunshot wounds and fasciotomy surgery.
Williams explained that, despite the fact that Marsh was shot at his home in Trelawny, the hospitals owed him a duty of care to give him the best medical treatment.
“However, that was not done so, when Marsh went to the United States, his leg was infested,” Williams said.
He said Marsh wasted no time in getting treatment overseas because the day after he left the Mandeville hospital he was overseas getting medical treatment. He disclosed that it was then diagnosed that the leg was infested with bacteria and sepsis. Williams said Marsh’s muscular tissues were dead and he was diagnosed to be suffering from necrosis.
“By the time Marsh got to America, it was hopeless,” Williams added.
Williams is now in the process of serving the defendants with copies of the suit that was filed and he said he is hoping the matter will be resolved amicably.