From Caribbean 360

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, Friday October 10, 2014, CMC – The doctor attending to environmental activist, Dr Wayne Kublalsingh, who is on an indefinite hunger strike, has withdrawn her services with immediate effect.

In a letter on Thursday, Dr. Asante VanWest-Charles-Le Blanc said there’s no doubt Kublalsingh is dying and as a medical practitioner who has an imperative to preserve life, she’s torn between that imperative and respect for the autonomy of her patient.

“I have advised Dr. Kublalsingh day after day to accept medical intervention and to seize from the hunger strike because there has been a steady decline in organ function, to my mind it is no longer stable but it is critical. There is no stability about it. We know that there is organ damage…” she said.

According to Charles-Le Blanc, she will still be available if an emergency occurs.

“I will be happy to attend to him in any institution of his choice if he decided to stop this hunger strike. While 23 days with no food or water is demonstrative of tremendous mental and physical fortitude, it

is also a very unsettling experience for all those involved. I am not threatening or coercing him, but rather being honest with him and myself,” she added.

Kublalsingh, who staged a 21-day hunger strike in 2012, is fasting again in an attempt to sway Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s decision to go ahead to construct a the Debe to Mon Desir segment of the seven billion dollar (One TT dollar =US$0.16 cents)Point Fortin highway in south Trinidad.

Meanwhile, differing claims have come from Senior Counsel Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, who leads the legal team of the Highway Re-Route Movement (HRM), and the Office of the Attorney General as to whether or not an application has been made to the Privy Council on behalf of the HRM.

The application is for a conservatory order with respect to the Debe- to-Mon Desir section of the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway extension to Point Fortin.

Ramlogan has said the matter cannot be speeded up if it is not yet before the Privy Council, and he has been mandated by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to ascertain the status of the appeal.

Ramlogan said he could not, in spite of his “sympathy and compassion” for Kublalsingh, defy the law.

In a media statement Wednesday, Maharaj said Ramlogan’s statements were erroneous as there were conditions to be met within the time frame stipulated by the court after leave was granted by the Court of Appeal to go to the Privy Council.

IMAGE: DR WAYNE KUBLALSINGH

For more on this story go to: http://www.caribbean360.com/news/doctor-treating-trinidad-environmentalist-on-hunger-strike-withdraws-support-with-immediate-effect#ixzz3FrsYojBx