34-year-old Jason Forbes family desperately wants to know circumstances behind loved one’s death on the floor of the Spanish Town Hospital in St Catherine who waited, cried for stomach pain for 14 hours before he was called to received medical attention, but it was too late. .....Apologies not enough, laments mom

BY ANIKA RICHARDS Observer staff reporter richardsai@jamaicaobserver.com  Monday, October 06, 2014    

ALMOST a week after 76-year-old Unalee Edwards watched her son writhe on the floor of the Spanish Town Hospital in St Catherine for several hours before being pronounced dead, she still has several lingering questions.

Among them: Why did her son have to die? Edwards had taken her son, 34-year-old Jason Forbes, to the hospital some time after 7:00 pm last Tuesday because he was complaining of a pain in his stomach.

His sister, Carmen Gunn, recounted to the Jamaica Observer last Wednesday that it was not until some 14 hours later, on Wednesday morning, that her brother’s name was eventually called to received medical attention, but it was too late.

Gunn said her brother died while lying on the hospital’s floor. Edwards told the Observer that she does not want an apology, but instead wants answers.

“I was there the whole night, Jason bawling, ‘Lord Jesus help me; doctor, nurse, help me, mi a guh dead, mi a guh dead, unnu help me’,” the grieving mother recalled.

“When Jason bawl out at the outdoor patient (section)… him say, “Mama help me” and mi say, “Mi cyaan help yuh, memba seh mi and yuh did in deh and dem seh wi fi come out’.” Edwards said she told her son to return to the emergency area so that medical staff could see how much pain he was in.

“And he was there rolling, bawling, you could stay out by Spanish Town Hospital gate and hear him round the back,” the distraught mother shared, adding that nobody looked at him.

She said she watched her son toss and turn, restless on the floor, to the point where he urinated on himself because he was unable to make it to the restroom. more