I must applaud the Quappe family in their public response to the independent “Quality of Care Review of Emergency Medicine Services Response to Fatal Motor Vehicle Collision Involving Zak Maun Quappe (deceased)” by Dr Dan Cass.

Zak Quappe, who was only 21, died following a road crash early morning on 18th May, 2013 but he was still breathing seconds before the paramedics arrived. The review states there were no attempts made immediately to resuscitate the young man.

Instead of screaming for blood and threats of suing everyone in sight the Quappe’s released the review and both Barrie Quappe, Zak’s mother and his sister, Teri, publicly said the family were not seeking compensation or any other specific requests for themselves – only transparency on the incident and an acknowledgement that, for whatever reasons, proper procedures were not followed.

Although saying they welcomed the report from Dr Cass neither the Cayman islands Government Health Ministry nor the Government Authority made any comment on the lack of immediate resuscitation that was vital and was standard procedure. The Quappe’s did not get their acknowledgement. Appalling.

The Quappe family’s desire is to ensure that in similar future circumstances standard protocols will be followed and all possible medical measures are exhausted.

Obviously the HSA (Health Services Authority) would not admit any culpability but they absolved themselves completely by saying in a brief statement the report says “other resuscitative measures by paramedics would not have altered the ultimate outcome.”

The Ministry of Health said, “many of the suggestions from the report have already been implemented and other systems have been reviewed and are being updated.”

And they even managed to give themselves a pat on the back: “We continually strive to improve an already excellent medical product in the Cayman Islands.”

Dr Cass also found our emergency crews, police, fire and ambulance are not working from a synchronized clock, leading to different times being recorded by the three departments.

The Department of Public Safety Communications said they were working to synchronize event recorders throughout the system. That’s nice to know. How long is that going to take?

The family was also quick to acknowledge Zak was racing with a friend when he lost control of the car and was killed when it hit a wall.

Teri said on CITN/Cayman27’s news report, “It’s not just our family that’s been through this. So many families in Cayman have lost relatives, lost their friends, people that they care about. And this can happen to anyone.”

She hoped that by releasing the report it would prompt quick action because unfortunately accidents will happen just like it happened to her brother.

I hope the “already excellent medical product in the Cayman Islands” can still be improved. If not another grieving family might not be so exemplary.

See iNews Cayman Front Page story today “Cayman Islands paramedic response deviated from established protocols in fatal accident”

And

“Cayman Islands Health Ministry replies to Quality of Care Review on road death victim” also published today.