标签： Bahamas

A 42-year-old Bahamian man, Lamond Brice, whose family alleged a surgeon at Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) admitted to causing an accidental, life-threatening injury during routine surgery, has passed away. His death comes just days after a private air ambulance service offered to fly him to Florida for life-saving treatment completely free of charge, leaving his grieving family to accuse the public hospital of robbing him of his final chance at survival through unnecessary administrative delays.

Brice was first admitted to PMH on September 3 for an operation to remove a non-cancerous growth in his stomach, according to his family’s account. The procedure was supposed to bring him relief from discomfort, and Brice had been optimistic about the outcome, his aunt Malaya Curry said. But his health declined rapidly immediately after the surgery, and his family eventually got a shocking admission from the lead operating surgeon: the doctor had accidentally damaged a key vein during the procedure.

Medical teams at PMH attempted to fix the error by grafting a replacement vein from Brice’s thigh, but a subsequent procedure to restore function to his dying intestines failed. With local doctors saying no further treatment could save Brice’s life, his family launched a push to transfer him to Jackson Health System in Florida for an urgent intestinal transplant. That transfer never materialized, however, as the family says PMH and the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA), the governing body for the country’s public medical facilities, dragged their feet on releasing all required medical and administrative documentation.

When news of Brice’s desperate situation was published in The Tribune, Anthony Marinello, president of private air ambulance firm Tropic Air Rescue, stepped forward on October 8 to offer the flight to Florida at no cost to the family, contingent only on confirmation that Jackson Health would accept the patient and that PMH provided all required paperwork. For Curry and the Brice family, the offer felt like a miracle — a second chance for the vibrant 42-year-old father of a 14-year-old daughter.

That miracle never came to fruition. Brice died last Friday, before the paperwork could be finalized. Speaking to reporters through tears, Curry accused the hospital of intentionally delaying the process to avoid accountability for the alleged surgical error. “They knew what they did. They just let him lay and die for a month,” Curry said. “They failed him 100 percent. Because after all they did to him and still, they never got him any help.”

Curry also claimed that the family was only made aware of post-surgical bleeding and tissue necrosis after Brice died, details she says doctors hid to avoid liability. She added that the PHA provided an incomplete letter for Brice’s passport renewal, adding another unnecessary delay to the transfer process. The family is now not only mourning Brice but also fundraising to cover his funeral costs, after pouring all their energy and resources into the transfer effort. Brice’s 14-year-old daughter has been left deeply traumatized by her father’s ordeal, Curry said, and now lives in fear of seeking hospital care for any future illness.

In an official statement following Brice’s death, the PHA extended its condolences to the Brice family, maintaining that it had processed all of the family’s transfer requests in compliance with established medical, administrative, and procedural protocols. The authority added that it had already provided the required documentation to the receiving Florida hospital and was waiting for the family to complete the next steps in the transfer process, and that it remains available to support the family however it can.

As of yesterday, neither PMH nor Bahamas Health Minister Dr Michael Darville had reached out to the Brice family to offer condolences or address their concerns. The family confirmed last month that they intend to pursue legal action against the hospital over allegations of medical negligence. They are still waiting to receive Brice’s full medical record, months after his initial surgery.

A high-stakes medical negligence case centered on the 2022 death of a newborn hours after birth at Nassau’s Princess Margaret Hospital has reignited public controversy after top government legal officials acknowledged they cannot explain why public health leaders initially pledged not to challenge a court ruling against the facility.

Bahamas Attorney General Wayne Munroe, the nation’s top legal officer for government matters, clarified in a press briefing this week that the decision to file an appeal follows a long-standing institutional policy: appeals are only pursued when legal teams conclude a trial judge made material errors of law that require higher court review. “I do not understand what prompted health officials to publicly state they would not move forward with an appeal,” Munroe stated Wednesday. “The fundamental rule that guides our office is straightforward: if a judge misapprehends the law, we appeal to have that error corrected. That standard applies regardless of the nature of the case.”

Munroe’s remarks came just weeks after two separate parties—the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA), which oversees the nation’s public hospital system, and the treating obstetrician Dr. Agatha Foulkes-Mackey—formally filed notices of appeal with the Court of Appeal on September 8. The PHA’s appeal was processed through the Attorney General’s office, as is required for all government entity litigation.

The appeals target a July 28 ruling by Acting Justice Raynard Rigby, KC, that found both the hospital and Foulkes-Mackey liable for the death of newborn Elizabeth Lundy, who died just two and a half hours after her birth on August 2, 2022. The court ruled in favor of the baby’s mother, Widline Guillaume, finding that clinical providers failed to meet the minimum standard of care required for her high-risk delivery.

The facts of the case laid out during the three-day June trial reveal the key point of dispute. Guillaume was waiting for COVID-19 test results before proceeding with an emergency caesarean section, and Justice Rigby found that no clinician monitored Guillaume or her unborn child between 4:10 a.m. and 4:37 a.m.—a 27-minute gap in care that the lower court ruled contributed to the infant’s death. Trial testimony included conflicting expert evidence: one side argued the death stemmed from preventable oxygen deprivation caused by the monitoring gap, while the defense claimed the baby died from an undiagnosed congenital heart defect that could not have been prevented or predicted.

What makes the current appeals so contentious is the explicit public commitment made by health leaders just one day after the ruling was issued. Then-PHA Managing Director Aubynette Rolle told local media outlet The Tribune that the authority had no intention of challenging the ruling, and would not force the grieving family to re-traumatize themselves by reliving the infant’s death through extended litigation. “We do not intend to prolong this case or go against the ruling, including any financial damages awarded,” Rolle stated at the time. Health Minister Dr. Michael Darville also publicly confirmed that no appeal would be pursued, reinforcing Rolle’s commitment to the family.

Munroe pushed back on the idea that the decision to appeal deviates from standard government legal procedure, noting that every claim brought against a public entity undergoes a formal review to decide between settlement and litigation. “Our current policy is clear: if we determine we do not have a valid legal defense, we proactively work to reach a fair settlement with claimants. But if we believe there are material legal errors in the ruling, we move forward with litigation if a settlement cannot be reached,” he explained, adding that the Court of Appeal will ultimately decide whether the trial judge misinterpreted causation and other key legal questions in the case.

In their formal appeal filings, the PHA advances three core arguments against the lower court ruling: first, that Justice Rigby failed to prove the 27-minute monitoring gap directly caused the newborn’s death; second, that the judge incorrectly applied the legal burden of proof to the case; and third, that the ruling relied on evidence that was never formally introduced during the three-day trial. The PHA is asking the appellate court to overturn or modify the original ruling, issue a new judgment in favor of the defense, and order Guillaume to cover the PHA’s legal costs for the appeal.

Foulkes-Mackey’s separate appeal challenges the personal liability finding against her. She argues that the trial judge never identified any specific act or omission on her part that fell below the required standard of care, and that she was incorrectly held responsible for a monitoring failure that the lower court itself attributed to hospital staff and the attending midwife. Foulkes-Mackey is asking the Court of Appeal to throw out the liability finding against her and dismiss the claim entirely, or in the alternative, order a new trial before a different judge.

Justice Rigby’s original ruling awarded Guillaume general and special damages, with the exact amount to be determined at a later hearing, and ordered the defense to cover her legal costs for the trial. To date, no hearing date has been scheduled for the appeals, leaving the grieving family in limbo as they wait for the legal process to conclude.

One of the Bahamas’ most enduring media workplaces, The Tribune, is this week honoring a truly remarkable career milestone: 57 consecutive years of dedicated service from Eloise Poitier, who has served as executive assistant to two of the outlet’s top leaders across more than five decades.

Poitier, affectionately known to colleagues as “Mrs P” and “Poits”, first stepped into the role of executive assistant in 1962, when the Rt Hon Eileen Carron officially took up the post of editor at the publication. She has remained in the position through the leadership transition to Carron’s son, Robert Dupuch-Carron, who now serves as both publisher of The Tribune and president of the Bahamas Aviation, Climate and Severe Weather Network (BACSWN).

Marking the unprecedented anniversary this week, Dupuch-Carron paid public tribute to Poitier, highlighting her rare level of commitment, consistent self-discipline and steadfast strong work ethic that have shaped her decades-long tenure. Calling the 57-year milestone extraordinary, he extended congratulations on behalf of the outlet’s entire staff, saying: “I salute you on behalf of all the staff on your dedicated service to the people’s paper.”

For her part, Poitier expressed deep gratitude to the Carron family and the entire Tribune team for the trust and support they have extended to her throughout her career. Reflecting on the changes she has witnessed, she noted that it has been a profound privilege to watch The Tribune grow from its earlier days into the major, trusted media outlet it is today. “To have been part of that means so much to me,” she said. “I’m especially grateful to Mrs Carron and her family for the opportunities afforded to me. I look forward to what the future holds.”

David Leigh, the outlet’s current Editor-in-Chief, echoed Dupuch-Carron’s praise, framing Poitier as a foundational, irreplaceable part of The Tribune’s newsroom culture. “Mrs P is an institution at The Tribune. She’s an amazing lady who keeps the place ticking, making sure everyone stays on their toes and everything is always running smoothly,” Leigh explained. “We’re incredibly fortunate to have her as part of our newsroom family.”

The entire Tribune organization joined in extending gratitude and warm congratulations to Poitier for her decades of service to the “people’s paper” and the communities it serves.

Two months after its top leader publicly pledged the institution would not challenge a landmark court ruling against it, the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) has reversed course and launched an appeal against a Supreme Court finding that Princess Margaret Hospital was negligent in the 2022 death of a newborn girl.

The PHA and co-defendant Dr. Agatha Foulkes-Mackey, an obstetrics and gynaecology registrar at the facility, submitted separate notices of appeal to the higher court on September 8. Both appellants center their challenge on the argument that acting Justice Raynard Rigby, KC, failed to prove a direct causal link between the 27-minute gap in fetal monitoring during labor and the fatal brain injury that killed baby Elizabeth Lundy.

For Dr. Foulkes-Mackey specifically, the appeal argues the lower court wrongfully imposed personal liability on her, a finding that directly contradicts Justice Rigby’s own conclusions. The original judgment explicitly noted that Dr. Foulkes-Mackey and a second clinician recognized the emergency and took all appropriate steps to address it, finding “no fault in their actions.”

The original ruling was delivered on July 28 in a lawsuit brought by the baby’s mother, Widline Guillaume. Baby Elizabeth was born on August 2, 2022, and died just two hours after birth, prompting Guillaume to file a wrongful death claim against the hospital and the clinical team involved. Justice Rigby ruled in Guillaume’s favor, finding that Princess Margaret Hospital and Dr. Foulkes-Mackey failed to meet the required standard of care when they paused monitoring of Guillaume and her unborn child between 4:10 a.m. and 4:37 a.m. The gap occurred while the patient waited for the results of a pre-surgery COVID-19 test ahead of an emergency caesarean section. The judge awarded Guillaume general and special damages, with the exact amount to be determined at a future hearing, and ordered the defendants to cover her legal fees.

The day after the original ruling, PHA’s then-managing director Aubynette Rolle told local outlet The Tribune that the authority had no intention of extending the legal battle or forcing the grieving family to relive the trauma of their baby’s death. “At this moment has no intentions of going back against the ruling,” Rolle stated at the time, adding that the PHA would accept all financial responsibilities tied to the decision.

That public commitment has now been abandoned. The PHA’s appeal, submitted through the Office of the Attorney General, asks the Court of Appeal to overturn the original ruling in full, amend the judgment, issue a new ruling in favor of the defendants, and order Guillaume to cover the PHA’s appeal legal costs.

Beyond the lack of causal connection, the PHA’s appeal outlines multiple alleged errors in Justice Rigby’s handling of the case. It argues the judge misapplied the legal burden of proof, which rests entirely on the claimant Guillaume to prove negligence. The lower court, the appeal claims, improperly highlighted evidence that was never introduced during the trial and referenced critical witnesses who were never called to testify. The PHA also takes issue with the judge’s decision to admit expert testimony that contradicted documented primary facts, when the clinician who recorded those original facts never testified during the proceedings.

The PHA further notes that the original judgment itself included multiple findings that undermine the negligence conclusion: the baby’s Apgar scores (a standard measure of newborn health) of 7 and 8 at one and five minutes after birth accurately reflected her condition at delivery; clinical staff acted immediately once the emergency caesarean was approved; pre-labor cardiotocography (CTG) readings showed no distress for either mother or baby; and there was no unreasonable delay in the delivery itself. Given these findings, the PHA argues the original ruling of negligence cannot be supported by the evidence presented at trial.

For her part, Dr. Foulkes-Mackey, represented by law firm Cheryl T Whyms & Co, is asking the Court of Appeal to strike all findings of liability against her, dismiss the claim entirely, and order Guillaume to pay her legal costs. In the alternative, she requests a new trial before a different judge.

Her appeal emphasizes that Justice Rigby never identified any specific action or inaction by Dr. Foulkes-Mackey that fell below the standard of care expected from a reasonably competent obstetrics and gynaecology registrar. The judge did not find that she removed the CTG monitor, was assigned responsibility for monitoring during the pre-surgery wait, instructed midwives not to conduct monitoring, knew monitoring was not occurring, or controlled hospital equipment, staffing, or operating room scheduling. Dr. Foulkes-Mackey also argues that Justice Rigby imposed collective liability on all defendants without clarifying which party owed the patient a duty of care or breached that duty, holding her personally responsible for a monitoring failure that the judge himself attributed to the hospital and the attending midwife. She adds that the claim of a monitoring lapse was never formally plead against her as an individual defendant – the original claim focused on delays in assessment and delivery, so she never received fair notice of the monitoring allegation or a chance to defend herself against it.

Dr. Foulkes-Mackey’s appeal also challenges the medical conclusions of the original ruling. It notes that fetal monitoring is a diagnostic tool, and the absence of monitoring cannot itself cause oxygen deprivation to a fetus. Justice Rigby never determined when the baby’s condition declined, what a 27-minute monitoring session would have detected, or whether any clinical intervention made possible by earlier monitoring would have saved the baby’s life. The baby was born alive and experienced fatal distress during transfer after delivery, and no evidence presented at trial was able to definitively explain the cause of the sudden deterioration, the appeal adds. Dr. Foulkes-Mackey points out that Justice Rigby explicitly stated he did not need to determine what caused the baby’s death – a step she argues was a legal requirement before he could find any defendant liable.

The appeal also takes issue with the judge’s conclusion that perinatal asphyxia was the probable cause of death. Justice Rigby rejected expert testimony from Dr. Ward that suggested an undiagnosed congenital heart condition could have been responsible, largely because the mother had a normal cardiovascular exam. Dr. Foulkes-Mackey notes that no expert evidence presented at trial supported the claim that a normal maternal exam rules out congenital heart disease in a fetus. She also challenges the judge’s reliance on the death certificate, pointing out that the doctor who signed the certificate, the treating paediatrician, and the attending nurse all never testified, no paediatric medical expert was called to support the cause of death finding, and no autopsy was conducted to confirm the cause of death. Both medical experts who testified at trial agreed that the lack of an autopsy made determining the actual cause of death significantly more difficult, the appeal adds.

To date, no hearing date has been scheduled for the appeal before the Court of Appeal.

A cycle of gang-linked violence in the Bahamas has claimed another life, bringing fresh heartbreak to two families and deepening public concern over persistent violent crime in New Providence. Keiron Butler, the 29-year-old man accused of murdering 16-year-old Davinique Gray — a high school student killed by stray gunfire while charging her phone at home in January 2024 — was fatally shot in an ambush outside his Pinewood Gardens residence on Friday.

The killing marks the second violent death tied to the January 2024 attack that shocked the nation. Seven months prior to Butler’s death, Gamaliel Gray — the man police identified as the intended target of the 2024 shooting that killed Davinique — was also gunned down in a separate ambush in South Beach. A striking common thread links both attacks: in each case, the shooters arrived and fled in a Japanese-model vehicle, matching details authorities released after both crimes.

According to initial police accounts, the Friday attack unfolded around 1:30 p.m. on Sequoia Street, moments after Butler and his partner Stanlesha Oliver arrived at his home. Witnesses and police reports confirm a silver Japanese-model SUV pulled alongside the pair, before a single gunman stepped out, fired multiple rounds at Butler, and quickly fled west on foot. Oliver, who shares an 8-year-old daughter with Butler, immediately jumped into action, driving the wounded man to Princess Margaret Hospital while screaming for help along the way.

In an emotional interview with local outlet The Tribune on Saturday, Oliver described the chaos and agony of the aftermath. “I remember screaming out for help, letting everyone know he got shot. They came with the stretcher, got him inside, and just made me wait, what felt like forever,” the 29-year-old recounted. Though she said she was frozen with shock and fear, her only instinct was to get Butler life-saving care. Medical teams initially detected a pulse, but shared no updates with Oliver until Butler’s mother arrived at the hospital. She later learned the second bullet had severed a major artery, causing catastrophic blood loss that surgeons could not reverse. “His heart stopped, so that was it,” Oliver said quietly.

The 2024 killing of Davinique Gray, an 11th grader at RM Bailey High School, first sent shockwaves across the Bahamas. The teen was inside her family’s Nassau Village home on January 6, 2024, when a barrage of gunfire tore through the building, striking and killing her. The tragedy carried extra layers of pain: Davinique’s father had been murdered two years earlier, and she was killed just one day after what would have been his birthday. At the time, she was the eighth person murdered in the Bahamas that year, prompting then Prime Minister Philip Davis to issue a statement saying he was deeply saddened and shocked by the senseless killing.

Police have long maintained that Davinique was never the intended target of the attack. Instead, they say the gunmen targeted Gamaliel Gray, who was in a relationship with Davinique’s mother Shinika Johnson, and was staying at the home at the time of the shooting. Gray was already a wanted man in connection with the January 2, 2024 murder of Gerrard Coakley, who was shot dead inside his own South Beach home just days before Davinique’s killing. Then-Commissioner of Police Clayton Fernander publicly stated that the attack on Davinique’s home was motivated by gang retaliation against Gray.

Gray surrendered to law enforcement just days after Davinique’s death, and was formally charged with Coakley’s murder. He was granted bail in December 2024, and was required to wear a court-ordered electronic monitoring device. But just three months after his release, on March 24, he was shot dead by attackers in a Japanese vehicle while he worked on a car outside his South Beach home, matching the same pattern of violence seen in Butler’s death.

Butler’s arrest came just over a month after Davinique’s killing: he was apprehended in the Berry Islands on February 9, 2024, and charged with Davinique’s murder five days later during a hearing before Magistrate Algernon Allen Jr. Police alleged Butler was the gunman who fired into the Nassau Village home. He was remanded into custody and his case was moved to the Supreme Court for trial; as of press time, the status of the unresolved murder case remains unconfirmed.

The tragedy of Davinique’s death has lingered for her mother, Johnson, who faced her own legal charges in the wake of the killing. Johnson was charged with harbouring a criminal in January 2024 for allegedly allowing Gray to stay at her home while he was wanted by police. She pleaded not guilty to the charge and was granted $10,000 bail. After Gray’s killing in March, Johnson told The Tribune that his death had only made it harder for her to grieve and move forward from her daughter’s senseless death.

For Oliver, the man police charged with killing Davinique is nothing like the partner and father she has known for more than a decade. The pair began dating as high school sweethearts in 2015, and Oliver described Butler as a loving, devoted partner who worked construction alongside his uncle, focused entirely on building a stable, financially secure future for their small family.

“That is not his character. It’s not who he is. I never could see him doing something like that,” Oliver said, pushing back on the murder allegations against Butler. “Anyone who knows Keiron will tell you he’s big on family. That was his whole drive. He wanted us to be happy, he wanted us to live well, he wanted us to be able to depend on him, he worked so hard to get us financially stable so we could count on him.”

Oliver said she took endless joy in watching Butler bond with their 8-year-old daughter. After the shooting, the girl was picked up from school by her uncle, and when she arrived home, she asked her mother directly whether her father was still alive. “It took me a little minute to get the words out,” Oliver recalled. “I told her, ‘No, your daddy is gone.’ She’s still pretty young, so she asked me, ‘Mummy, does that mean he’s in heaven or is his spirit roaming?’ I told her he’s in heaven, he’s watching over us, just to give her a little peace.”

When asked how she will navigate raising their daughter alone, Oliver said the future feels too overwhelming to process right now. “I’m mummy and daddy now,” she said. “I only can try my best.”