Pethidine is an old medicine, similar to morphine. It is the same narcotic substance that a doctor was overprescribing to Michael Jackson, and it is suspected that Michael Jackson died because of the abuse of pethidine. Pethidine abuse and addiction is a serious problem, not only globally, but also in Guyana. There are too many persons whose lives have become miserable and whose families endure unbelievable agony because of pethidine addiction.
Ms Carol Joseph has had to resign her position as a senior A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) member on the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice). This is a personal tragedy for Ms Joseph. I have fierce disagreements with Ms Joseph’s political views and her political activities. I find Ms Joseph’s behaviour and her political machinations to be abhorrent, but in this battle with pethidine addiction, I empathise with her. Ms Joseph’s battle with pethidine is a battle that has come home to too many families in Guyana. Whatever our politics, those persons who struggle to survive with pethidine addiction deserve our prayers and our support. Ms Joseph has my prayers and my best wishes as she battles the agony of pethidine addiction.
But if Ms Joseph’s pethidine abuse and addiction is a personal tragedy, there are other compelling tragedies in this story. One tragedy is that of Nurse Marks, a nurse at the Fort Wellington Hospital, who was unfortunate to be a nurse on duty on several occasions when Ms Joseph showed up at the hospital for a pethidine fix. She refused to be an enabler. The tragedy of opioid abuse and addiction is the many enablers in the health system. Ms Marks had the professional and moral strength to refuse the role of an enabler for Ms Joseph, refusing to help her sink deeper into the abyss of pethidine addiction. But there were many others in the system, either more than willing to be an enabler or too intimidated to refuse.
Unlike Ms Joseph, Nurse Marks’ tragedy is not self-inflicted. It is tragic that Ms Marks was transferred against her will as a punishment for doing her job. Nurse Marks stood up on a moral, ethical, medical and legal principle, adhering to her Nightingale vow “to do no harm”, refusing to provide an addictive medicine for a patient already seriously hooked on the drug. She was being a responsible professional, willing to provide health care, but not willing to be an enabler to promote substance abuse.
It is repugnant, therefore, for the Regional Executive Officer (REO), with full complicity of the APNU/AFC, to transfer Ms Marks from the Fort Wellington Hospital to a health centre in Bath Settlement, a transfer she objects to. Clearly, Ms Marks is being harassed and punished for standing up to Ms Joseph, a senior APNU member in Region Five. It took courage for this young professional to stand up against the political brand Ms Joseph promotes, a brand that stamps itself with brutal political vindictiveness. While the Region Five Administration which has jurisdiction for Fort Wellington Hospital and the PPP have objected to the treatment of Ms Marks, the Public Health Minister, President David Granger and APNU/AFC are arrogantly silent.
Ms Marks’ story is a genuine example of petty political vindictiveness that permeates almost every action of APNU.AFC. That is the kind of political intimidation that also accounts for some of the persons who served as Ms Joseph’s enablers. The REO of Region Five, Ms Joseph’s APNU/AFC colleagues at the regional and national levels who knew of Ms Joseph’s ugly abuse of pethidine might have been willing enablers, but I suspect that some of the public health officials might have been reluctant enablers, people intimidated to become enablers. The Regional Health Officer (RHO) abrogated his Hippocratic Oath of “doing no harm”.
Did he act out of fear and as a result of political intimidation? When one sees the sheer ugliness of political vindictiveness at the national level carried out against political leaders like Bharrat Jagdeo and Anil Nandlall, one could understand the fear and intimidation local professionals operate under.
One tragedy often compounds itself by attendant tragedies. This is such a story. Ms Marks was punished for doing the right thing; others like the REO and the RHO keep their jobs for being enablers. We need more nurses and healthcare providers like Ms Marks. One young lady has bravely exposed a powerful political machinery. APNU/AFC might have used its powers to punish her, but unlike its shame, she stands tall with honour. APNU/AFC is finding out that there are many who will not succumb to bullies.
