By Sue-Ann Wayow
A 54-year-old contractor is unable to get lifesaving stents as two of his arteries are 95% clogged.
Jewel Jack Badnock, of Oropune Gardens, Piarco, cannot work due to his health condition and the fact that he has only six toes as four were amputated due to diabetes.
The father of four and grandfather of seven told AZP News that since 2021, he has been waiting on stents to assist him with his heart.
Already a diabetic for the past 13 years, he suffered two heart attacks in the first three months of 2021, the first one being a mild attack and the second occurring about a month after.
Badnock’s survival of the second one has doctors at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope baffled as to how he is still alive without the much needed stents.
He said when the second heart attack happened at 11 pm while at his home, a Housing Development Corporation (HDC) apartment, he was rushed to the hospital where he underwent treatment.
After undergoing a series of tests, the patient was told then that he suffered a heart attack, and that two arteries were clogged to a capacity at 95%.
Emergency surgery was required but not given and Badnock would visit the hospital again for his first clinic appointment on March 21, 2023. His second clinic appointment would be on July 21, 2023.
On the two occasions, Badnock said he was asked, “How come you still alive?” by the medical staff.
As a diabetic, Badnock is a patient of the Arouca Health Centre where he says he has no problem with the dedicated staff at that facility.
He also does not have a problem with the care given at Mt Hope having done cataract surgery there some time before his heart attacks.
The problem is getting the stents.
Badnock said he was told that the hospital could not source the correct size to fit into his body.
“I am dying. I don’t have long again to live if I do not have the stents,” Badnock said.
With no work at his fingertips, he has to find money to get medication if not available at the hospital which sometimes costs $1,500 a fortnight he said.
His wife tries to support financially whenever she can with the little she earns.
“My family depends on me and I cannot assist them,” Badnock said.
Desperation has caused him to reach out to politicians for help on both government and opposition sides to no avail he said.
“I am fighting for my life. I am a law-abiding citizen and I cannot get help just to live,” he lamented.
Badnock’s amputated toes are a result of the clogged arteries.
“The oxygenated blood was not reaching down to my toes,” he said.
AZP News has contacted Chief Executive Officer of the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) Davlin Thomas on the matter and we are waiting on a response.
