PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The Judiciary had dismissed suggestions, including those made by the main opposition United National Congress (UNC), that there were no emergency medical response procedures in place when attorney Neil Byam collapsed on died in the courtroom last Friday.
“It is indeed unfortunate that in their shock and grief, people say things without having information and thus cast aspersions on the Judiciary’s medical response team and on its first responders who have handled many incidents in our 25 court buildings which, fortunately, due to their intervention did not end in the death of the person who was impacted,” the Judiciary said in a statement.
It said the Judiciary realizes that emergencies, medical or otherwise, do not call for a ‘cookie cutter’ reaction but must be dealt with in keeping with well-developed SOPs. On this occasion, these processes were engaged.”
Byam, 61, a retired deputy Solicitor General, was addressing the panel of judges in the Appeal Court when he collapsed. He had to be assisted by Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes, who helped lower him to the floor, where attempts were made unsuccessfully to resuscitate him.
Justice Prakash Moosai, one of the three judges on the panel, said a review or overhaul of the Judiciary’s emergency response protocols was needed.
“The response system ought to be a bit quicker, in my view,” he said.
Speaking at a news conference on Sunday, opposition legislator Dr. Roodal Moonilalsaid the reports received by the party about the incident left him saddened.
“It was not on time, not urgent, not done in haste to come to the aid of Mr. Byam when he collapsed,” Moonilal said, adding, “our information is that the emergency response was far from adequate and that there was no emergency kit or any kind of relevant emergency or medical equipment that could be found at the Hall of Justice to come to the aid of this man.”
Media reports said that emergency responders came 20 minutes after Byam had collapsed.
But in its statement, the Judiciary said it could deal with medical emergencies at any of its court buildings, taking issue with the suggestions that there were no emergency medical response procedures in place when Byam collapsed and later died in the courtroom.
It said “nothing could be further from the truth” to suggest there were no emergency medical response procedures in place and that all judges and staff have the number for its medical response team (MRT), including its security officers assigned throughout the buildings.
The statement said that Justice Gillian Lucky, also presiding over the appeal, called the MRT number and got an immediate response.
“In each of our 25 court locations, all senior security personnel and other court security officers, as well as several other staff members, are trained and certified to act on these occasions. On this occasion, a trained court security officer arrived within two minutes, turned the attorney on his side, and began compression.
“As a doctor had been called by someone in the courtroom and was on video, he (the security officer) did not act independently as he would do otherwise but followed instructions of the doctor until the ambulance service, which our MRT called, arrived within 18 minutes.
“Our first responder was about to begin mouth-to-mouth resuscitation when the ambulance service emergency medical team (EMT) arrived,| the statement said.
The statement said, “the passing of our esteemed colleague has left us all shaken, troubled and distressed. Pointing fingers or making uninformed statements certainly does not offer comfort or support to Mr. Byam’s family in their grief”.
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