Stop the insanity!

Mrs. Teregeyo did suffer from both negligence and malice. I was one of three orthopedic surgeons who operated on her during the course of five additional surgeries here in the mainland. I did this because I once cared for her as a patient, was not permitted the due process to finish supervising her care, she sustained a complication and was in trouble and my physician’s honor commanded me to help her as best as I could—unfortunately from off island due to the bad administration of CHCC. If I am speaking out of turn then let’s just let Mrs. Teregeyo have her day in court and let a jury decide. 

I would have done this for any person that was once under my care. A patient should never suffer because of something bad that happened to me personally. My responsibility does not stop just because of being off-island.

Mrs. Teregeyo had infected dead bone removed, antibiotic impregnated beads placed and further intravenous antibiotics. She had a 75 percent chance of losing her leg to an amputation at the thigh, which would have permanently confined her to a wheelchair.

Mrs. Teregeyo’s knee was destroyed. An artificial knee was replaced but this has a high chance of becoming re-infected in the future because of all of the metal and plastic and because some of the bugs can make cocoons in the pores of the metal and hide for years from the body’s immune system.

As a surgeon, I know that sometimes surgeries work and sometimes they don’t. The infection can come back even 10 years later. It wasn’t us as doctors that saved her leg; it was the good Lord. It is His will alone who decides the outcome. Why did He decide to save Mrs. Teregeyo’s leg? I stand on His decision of what was best for her and to answer any questions of her worthiness.

It is a bad administrative policy to have an orthopedic surgeon come for one month and then leave. The operation is only one small piece of the process to a successful outcome. Who will look out for the orthopedic post-operative care when the surgeon leaves? Why is everyone that cannot tolerate the low standards of working with Muña publicly discredited in the newspapers? I have not known that many unconscionable doctors and CFOs as the stories that come out of CHCC and then make it to the newspapers suggest. How do we console the families of the five guilty verdicts that attorney Dotts already has against CHCC? What does it take to force reason into the eyes of the naysayers? I humbly once again call on the Honorable Governor to please, for the love of God and the people, convene a review board and put a stop to this insanity!

Grant Walker, MD
via email