A family in Montego Bay, St James, is today questioning the death of a 17-year-old relative after he died at the Cornwall Regional Hospital after being brought there with a broken leg on April 9.

THE STAR was told that the deceased, Odain Whittingham, an information technology student at the Montego Bay Community College, was along Gloucester Avenue at 4:45 a.m. when a car got out of control and hit him. He was taken to the hospital at 4:58 a.m.

within minutes

Narel Whittingham, mother of the deceased, said that while her son was taken to the hospital within minutes after the accident, he was not taken to the operating theatre until some 12 hours later.

"He got to the hospital at 4:58 a.m. and he was not put to sleep and taken to the theatre until 6:10 p.m.," she said. "Up until that time he was ok. He was talking and everything. He was even asking one of the doctors if he was going to lose his leg."

Whittingham recalled that at 8:45 a.m., hours before her son went in for surgery, he was given some medication but noted that shortly afterwards rashes came out on his hands and his face became slightly swollen.

"I told a doctor about the rashes and he said he would look at it but I don't remember if he did," Whittingham said.

Later, she said, after he was taken to the theatre, a doctor came out looking for Odaine's parents. After identifying herself, she said she was told that the youngster had died. "The doctor told me that his lungs had collapsed and that his heart had stopped beating," the mother of the deceased said.

"When I saw Odaine afterwards he was swollen and his chest looked puffed up, even his tongue was sticking out of his mouth."

Whittingham bemoaned, "Had the matter been treated like an emergency, then maybe Odaine would have still been here. I am not sure if the medication they gave him is connected to his death but there should not have been such a long delay before he received treatment."

Attempts to get in contact with two doctors who were said to have met with the family in a meeting following the incident were unsuccessful.

tight-lipped

The hospital's chief executive officer, Everton Anderson, said that he had no knowledge of the situation as nothing of that nature had been reported to him. However, he said that the matter would be looked into.

An independent pathologist acquired by the family was tight-lipped about the situation when contacted. The pathologist said that he would not be making any comments about the situation until the final results of the investigation are in.

He said that the post-mortem conducted by the hospital yesterday was inconclusive, but samples were removed from the body for further testing.