Yesterday, police reported the sudden death of Hilibrant Blades - who was found dead at his Rivero Street home in Belize City. And while the initial investigative review indicated that he died suddenly from natural causes - information emerging today show that his passing was preceded by a series of violent encounters. Today his family is alleging that those events and medical malpractice at the KHMH led to his death. It's a whole different story than the one police were telling yesterday - and Alfonso Noble has more:
Alfonso Noble, Reporting
40 year old Hilibrand Blades had come home here to number 13 Rivero street three weeks ago with a broken right arm, a broken right leg and a broken jaw. These injuries, says his common law wife he sustained as a result of an argument he had with someone on Kut avenue.
Marilyn Welch - Common Law Wife.
Wah man weh I know, I know the man weh bruk up ah right,eh wap ah with wah iron. Eh foot eh hand me fractured and eh jaw bone bruk or you know.
Blades had gone to the KHMH for attention and he received it. His arm and Leg were put in casts and his jaw was strung up. Three weeks later he removed both casts and left home early on Sunday June 30th. At the time he did not tell his wife where he was going. Sometime around 10 that morning police came to her home to tell her that Blades had been stabbed.
Another argument and the person stab ah eena y upper leg weh y mi done geh bruk already you know. So dat dah early Sunday morning I guess because he left my house early Sunday morning before I even wake up. Dah C.I.B. come tell me and ask me like, weh eh deh. I tell ah I no have no idea and they tell me they could tell me weh eh deh. That eh deh eena hospital. I say 'again' and they say some man stab ah.
Police took Blades to the hospital and for the second time in 3 weeks he was admitted this time with a stab wound to the right leg the same leg that was broken earlier. It is shortly after admission that things started to go wrong for Blades. His wife claims authorities were discharging him shortly after receiving attention. She says he refused and stayed the night because he was suffering from extreme pain. On Monday he was finally released and came home.
"Nuttn mi really happen, eh neva look like nuttn mi wrong with ah like eh sick to that extent. Only that I look pan ah and eh look pale weh y mussy done loose so much blood through this last one noh. The night now afta, bout afta two eh, I hear the struggling eena the house like somebody weh di ketch fits or something and I jump up. When I look dah he the kick up but eh eye mi done back way you know. "
"Then then time eh done vomit and dah lone blood eh bring up and some big clods, mussy mi deh pah eh stomach or something like that. When I look I see eh had wah bus pan eh forhead. The only thing I coulda mi sehh that mussy wheh y come out a di room and drop right pan the ground. Mussy guenst a di wall bus eh forhead."
"Couple minutes before that time deh the man stretch right out. Eena wah short space ah time nuttn, you no hear nuttn fran ah. I holla for ah and halla for ah and no say nothing else so I say 'oh my God, the man dead'."
With that this 36 year old mother of 6 is left to grapple with the belief that her common law husband was discharged early for the sake of bed-space.
"I think they shouldami, like how eh deh eena hospital fu whole a week and change they shouldami ge ah what whold search out because I feel like the bleeding mi still deh inside a ah mek eh cause make eh bring up lone blood and clods."
Now the ball is squarely placed in the hands of Hospital Authorities who now have to explain their way out of another allegation of improper medical attention.
The KHMH has a quality assurance committee which has been investigating the case since morning. The hospital's administration will have a statement tomorrow. But initially, through an intermediary, Medical Chief of Staff Dr. Cuellar sent word to our newsroom that the cause of death stated in the police post mortem, "pulmonary thrombosis due to a stab wound in the leg", seems improbable.