THE Tobago Regional Health Authority (TRHA) has to pay the mother of a teenager close to $190,000 because of administrative and systematic failures that led to his death.
The assessment of damages was done by Master Martha Alexander who ordered the TRHA to pay Arlene Parisienne Seeram for her son’s death.
In October 2017, Justice Frank Seepersad found the TRHA culpable in the death of Zach Matthew Seeram who suffered severe internal injuries which were not detected by doctors at the Scarborough General Hospital.
He had been admitted for stab wounds.
Seeram died seven days after he was first treated for the wounds he received on September 1, 2010. He had returned to the Scarborough General Hospital on three separate occasions during that week.
He died on September 7, 2010 and a post-mortem concluded that he died from stab wounds, two of which caused severe injuries that resulted in his death.
The injuries had not been discovered by the attending physicians although Seeram visited the hospital on the three separate occasions, the judge said.
He ordered that the teenager’s mother be compensated.
In her assessment, Alexander made an award of $130,000, with interest of 2.5 per cent from August 27,2014 to July 23, for loss years, which, she said, was purely compensatory in nature and aimed to make reparations to the deceased’s estate for the lost portion of their earnings.
She also gave an award for loss of expectation of life in the sum of $25,000.
The teenager’s mother, Arlene Parisienne Seeram, who filed the lawsuit, was represented by Senior Counsel Gilbert Peterson and attorney Dawn Palackdharry Singh. Lennox Phillips represented the TRHA.
