A Bahamian family has leveled serious negligence allegations against Princess Margaret Hospital following the disappearance of their 72-year-old dementia patient relative shortly after admission. Felix Beneby, who was hospitalized on Saturday morning for hernia complications and scheduled for surgery, mysteriously left the medical facility without staff detection and was later discovered at his sister’s residence approximately 3.4 miles away.
According to family accounts, Mr. Beneby was admitted through emergency services following a four-hour ambulance delay. His son, Solomon Beneby, expressed profound distress over the incident, highlighting that hospital staff allegedly knew about the disappearance during Saturday evening yet failed to notify relatives until Sunday morning.
The family’s concerns are compounded by the patient’s critical medical condition. “The emotional and psychological trauma currently being experienced by my family cannot be expressed in words,” stated Solomon Beneby. “To walk at night from PMH to Malcolm Road with a hernia pending surgery scheduled for Monday, I cannot even begin to imagine the pain of each step on that uneven path.”
Medical professionals familiar with such cases note that hernia patients typically require careful monitoring as displacement of stabilizing devices could trigger severe internal bleeding. The family now demands explanations regarding security protocols and communication procedures that allowed the vulnerable patient to exit unnoticed and why emergency contacts weren’t immediately notified.
The Public Hospitals Authority has not responded to media inquiries regarding the incident. This event has reignited existing concerns about patient safety standards at the Nassau-based healthcare facility, marking another episode in ongoing scrutiny of the institution’s care protocols.
