WPP saddened and shocked by death of 4-year-old

The World Pediatric Project (WPP) has expressed shock over the death of a child who had surgery during one of their recent orthopaedic missions to St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The child, Aveek Gerald died at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital last Sunday, four days after having corrective surgery on his hip.

In a brief statement provided to SEARCHLIGHT this week, the WPP said that its “staff and doctors are truly saddened and shocked by the death of sweet Aveek.

“He was the recipient of ongoing paediatric care and interventions of specialist doctors and nurses,” the statement affirmed.

WPP further noted that 4-year-old Aveek had responded “extremely well,” to their medical interventions.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Aveek’s family and all who mourn his passing,” the statement concluded.

Aveek, who lived with his relatives in South Rivers had a minor birth defect, where his left leg was shorter that his right leg. As a result, he was not able to walk properly.

SEARCHLIGHT understands that it had always been Aveek’s dream to be able to walk normally, just like all his friends at the South Rivers Early Childhood Centre.

His dream was supposed to become a reality last week, when the corrective surgery was done.

SEARCHLIGHT has learned that on Wednesday, September 27, Aveek had a ‘super hip procedure’ done by the WPP orthopaedic team at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital in Kingstown, which according to all reports, went well.

A reliable source made a distinction between Aveek’s ‘super hip procedure’ and the ‘limb length discrepancy’ surgery that was performed by the WPP on another patient on September 25 in St Vincent.

It was the first time the limb lengthening discrepancy procedure was being performed here.

According to our source, the patient who received the limb length discrepancy surgery is recovering well.

An autopsy performed on the child’s body on Wednesday October 4 at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital gave the cause of death as “massive upper GI bleed due to or as a consequence of acute haemorrhagic gastritis with perforation”. The autopsy report also said another significant condition contributing to the death, but not related to the disease or condition causing it was “coxa vara S/P left upper hip”.

The child was reportedly discharged from hospital one day after the surgery and was on a course of Ibuprofen to relieve his pain from the surgery.

While recovering at home, the child’s health began to decline; he was rushed to the Georgetown Smart Hospital on Sunday and later transferred to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital where he subsequently died.

SEARCHLIGHT made repeated attempts on Thursday to make contact with the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health in order to get a comment on the matter, but our attempts were futile.