Full Text | Family of Jodian Fearon wants medical records released

The family of Jodian Fearon is calling for the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) to release her medical records.

READ: Jodian died a terrible death

READ: Jodian Fearon died from heart failure 

According to the family’s attorney Isat Buchanan, the UHWI has indicated that neither the next of kin nor the family or its medical or legal advisers can receive the documents.

READ: UHWI concerned about release of information from Jodian Fearon’s post-mortem

Noting that the family is not questioning the moral integrity of hospital personnel, Buchanan says they believe that releasing the documents will help them find answers and would provide some comfort in their time bereavement.

READ: Boyfriend of late Jodian Fearon in anguish

“Our Jodian is dead and a child is now without her mother. It may well be that she died despite the best efforts of the health providers or that she died due to the neglect or omission of a health provider,” the attorney said in a statement today.

“The failure to hand over documents leave us vulnerable to public sceptics who feel that our loved one died under questionable circumstances since they leave us open to the possibility of person(s) who ask us to consider whether these institutions would take this stance unless they had something to hide,” he added.

Buchanan argues that the stance taken by the UHWI highlights an opportunity for the government to examine hospital protocols around medical records.

Full Statement

We note with interest the statement from the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) in relation to our Jodian Fearon.

We also note that despite our best efforts UHWI has failed to hand over any copies of the relevant documents to us. We understand that UHWI may well be strictly adhering to its own Standards Operating Procedure or the Ministry of Health’s protocol (We are unable to find either of these documents despite numerous searches for same). 

The family does not intend to question the moral integrity of the good men and women who work tirelessly at UHWI, MOH or our health institutions to keep our country safe. We do not intend to fight the persons who are the first responders in this COVID fight. We only seek to find out how and why Jodian died. We only seek justice for Jodian.

Our Jodian is dead and a child is now without her mother. It may well be that she died despite the best efforts of the health providers or that she died due to the neglect or omission of a health provider. The release of these documents will help us find an answer to this and would provide some comfort to us in this moment of our bereavement. 

We ask UHWI to consider whether strict adherence to an unseen protocol(s) and standard operating procedures may not cause further undue grief to families already in distress. The failure to hand over documents leave us vulnerable to public sceptics who feel that our loved one died under questionable circumstances since they leave us open to the possibility of person(s) who ask us to consider whether these institutions would take this stance unless they had something to hide. We ourselves are not yet convinced that any of these institutions are seeking to hide these documents for nefarious reasons. 

We call upon UHWI to reconsider its decision not to give our medical or legal advisers copies of the record. If UHWI still insists that neither the next of kin, its family, its medical adviser or its legal adviser can receive these documents then the parliament must consider whether this position, in any matter like this, is in the nation’s best interest.

Perhaps it is time for the government to examine whether or not it is in the public interest for hospitals to perform their public duties in this way. After this examination – it may well find that the time has come to legislate away this problem that has undoubtedly caused bereavement to far too many Jamaican families. 

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