Trinidad Judiciary denies being unprepared to deal with emergencies following death of lawyer

The Trinidad Judiciary has 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 and 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 emergen- cies, medical or otherwise, by their very nature, 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 lowered him to the floor where attempts were made unsuccessfully to resuscitate him

Justice Prakash Moosai, who was one of the three judges on the panel, said a review or overhaul of the judiciary's emergency response protocols was needed

Speaking at a news conference on Sunday,

Opposition legislator, Dr Roodal Moonilal said 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 emergency responders arrived 20 minutes after Byam had collapsed

But in its statement, the judiciary said it is able to 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 Justice Gillian Lucky, who was also presiding over the appeal called the MRT number and got an immediate response