PRIME Minister Perry Christie has promised to build a state-of-the-art hospital in Eleuthera days after an elderly woman died while waiting for medical assistance.

While touring the island yesterday in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Mr Christie extended his condolences to the family of 58-year-old Helena Smith Pinder and said that despite the nurses on the island doing all they could for her, it just wasn’t enough.

He said the government will immediately begin working on a plan to build a new hospital between Governor’s Harbour and Palmetto Point. A hospital, he said, is estimated to cost between $10 and $15 million, that will be accessible to all residents.

According to reports Mrs Smith suffered a stroke at about 10pm last Thursday, but could not be flown to New Providence for medical care because of Hurricane Sandy.

Her brother, Mr Alvin Smith, former North Eleuthera MP and Speaker of the House, said all planes had been grounded, trapping his sister on the island for about two days. He said had a doctor attended to Mrs Smith earlier or if the island had proper medical facilities he believed she would have lived.

“After she had the stroke she was taken to the clinic where she was put on oxygen, but the clinic obviously does not have the same facilities as the hospital. They did all they could and she was on oxygen until she was able to fly out around 11o’clock Saturday morning,” he said.

“The doctor did not get to the clinic in Hatchet Bay until the next day. So she was left in the hands of nurses for almost 24 hours. The Minister of Health said the doctor could not get to the clinic because of the storm, but we were told that he was instructed by Nassau not to go to Hatchet Bay, even though it is in his jurisdiction. It is only 22 miles away, he could have made that. We were also told they couldn’t get any flights out and the air ambulances were out of the country.

“It is not unusual for pilots to fly their planes to Florida or another part of the United States while a storm is here and then bring them back when the storm is gone. By the time she got to the Princess Margaret Hospital, doctors said her brain was swollen and she had internal bleeding. She died on Sunday.”

When asked how he felt about the proposed new hospital in Eleuthera, Mr Smith said: “The Prime Minister says many things, I’ll believe it when I see it.”

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