SHAME on Fraser Health Authority – and the Health Ministry – for playing politics just before the provincial elections in order to try and calm the anger of South Asians and others over the death of three-year-old Nimrat Gill, who died at Abbotsford Regional Hospital on February 7 because she did not receive proper attention from hospital staff.

Instead of having the decency to wait for the B.C. Coroners Service’s report on the tragic death that has incensed the South Asian community, Fraser Health on Tuesday sent a statement to mainstream media that appeared to place the blame on the poor dead child instead!

Fraser Health told the media that the laboratory test results indicate that the kid had “a fast-moving and aggressive bacterial infection known as invasive group A streptococcal disease.”

It said that Group A streptococcal disease usually causes mild illnesses such as strep throat or a mild skin infection, but could on rare occasions also invade parts of the body where the bacteria are not found — such as the lungs or blood — and these invasive infections are potentially life-threatening, the CBC reported.

“Given what we know about how aggressive and fast-moving an invasive group A streptococcal infection can be, it cannot be determined if an earlier diagnosis and subsequent treatment would have saved Nimrat’s life,” Fraser Health President and CEO Michael Marchbank said in a statement.

He added that they have come up with six actions following their review of Gill’s death.

The truth is that Fraser Health failed miserably to handle Nimrat Gill’s case properly. It was the responsibility of the doctors and the nurses to carry out a PROPER medical checkup and not treat her like an outcast!

Their callousness is appalling – and the Fraser Health’s strategy to try and weasel out of the situation in this manner is a TOTAL INSULT to the South Asian community.

AS we reported in February, the child’s mother had posted the tragic loss of her daughter on Facebook:

I, Balraj Gill, want to share a tragic incident that changed our lives in the blink of an eye. Every parent’s nightmare has come to life.

I lost my 3 years old innocent daughter NIMRAT GILL because of the carelessness of the staff members at THE ABBOTSFORD REGIONAL HOSPITAL AND CANCER CENTER (emergency department).

She had cough & bad fever and couldn’t sleep well on the night of February 5th so I took her to the hospital around 2am with my husband who was also sick. Dr gave antibiotic to my husband but he didn’t bother about my daughter. He said she is okay and give her Tylenol. We came home at 7 am.

During the day we gave her Tylenol every 4 hours, but she still wasn’t getting any better.

The next morning around 5am I had to rush her back to the hospital again. The staff was so careless they didn’t pay any proper attention to her or provided her with anything . I was telling nurses and laboratory persons and Doctors about her changing symptoms but they didn’t pay attention. They didn’t bother to give her oxygen or any IV for her dehydration because she was vomiting.

When she was almost gone 10 am then they made a code call and whole staff was pretending to give her CPR and after 15 min they said SORRY. I knew she was already gone when they started their job because I was there until then but then they told me to go outside.

It’s so much shameful that the emergency staff wasted 5 hours to think of any treatment for a sick baby. 5 hours are more than enough to save a life in a emergency department.

OR Doctors are only there to give TYLENOL or ADVIL to the sick patients. Even we all mothers know that much too. What is the use of their Degrees then?

I used to think that Doctors at emergency departments are specialist and they can save everyone or at least do their best. Unfortunately I was totally wrong. They don’t even have time to check the patients properly.

They should have taken the X RAYS and BLOOD TEST on the first visit then my daughter would have been with us. Her whole life was before her. Our lives have changed. We couldn’t do anything to save her precious life.

GONE TOO SOON

THE mother told a South Asian radio in February that if the doctors had examined her daughter properly the first time they went to hospital, she would have still been alive.

She also resented the doctors merely taking down notes while she was explaining Nimrat’s condition instead of examining her right away.