Injured man disappears from hospital

The loved ones of Renford Donaldson, who was a patient at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH), are worried sick after he untied himself and left the facility last Friday, October 9.

His sister, Verneek Donaldson-Williams, said her 47-year-old brother was transferred from the Percy Junior Hospital in Manchester last Thursday. He ended up in the hospital after falling from a truck and receiving head injuries.

She said Donaldson was admitted on Ward 3 North at KPH and had to be restrained.

"The CT scan showed that he had swelling on the brain and internal bleeding so he wasn't behaving like his usual self. I visit the hospital early last Friday to bring his clothes for him. I returned in the afternoon before visiting hours because I got a call from the doctor to bring a disc to him," she said.

Donaldson-Williams said she was grateful when she was given permission to see her sibling although it wasn't visiting hours and offered to give him a bath.

"He had on the same clothes that he had came up in from the day before so I wanted to clean him up. However, it was a bit difficult because he was restrained and I couldn't manage to do it alone. The nurse told me that I could untie him but after that a student nurse told me to leave him as a staff member would get him cleaned up later in the afternoon," she said.

Donaldson-Williams said about 6:30 p.m. she received a telephone call that Williams had 'escaped' from the hospital. She said she was blamed for his disappearance because she untied him.

"I left him there and I didn't pull him at all and the student nurse would be there as my witness. He passed security and everything without anyone noticing. This is frustrating because they don't want to take responsibility for what happened. I did not untie my brother at all. Another patient told me that he saw when my brother used his teeth to pull himself and took off the drip and released himself," she said.

Donaldson-Williams is fearful that because of the swelling around his brain, her brother could collapse anywhere.

"My brother is not familiar with Kingston and we just buried our father so one can only imagine what our mother is going through now. We don't know what is happening to him because he is not in his right mind now," she said. "His children are worried because there are persons who are calling to say that he was found dead so I have to just tell them not to believe that unless they have proof. We are worried about him and if something happens to our brother it is because of the hospital's negligence."

Newly appointed CEO of the Kingston Public Hospital, Burknell Stewart, said the administration is aware of the incident and is conducting further investigations.