By SANCHESKA DORSETT

Tribune Staff Reporter

sdorsett@tribunemedia.net

AFTER 23 years together and four children, Craig Forbes finally asked the love of his life, Shantell Michelle Bain, to marry him. But their wedding plans came to a screeching halt in July of 2017, when Ms Bain’s appendix ruptured, killing her almost instantly, just hours

after being sent home from the Princess Margaret Hospital with a kidney stone diagnosis.

Now after almost six months of “no answers” and “dead ends,” Mr Forbes said he just wants to know “how doctors could make such a big mistake”.

In an interview with The Tribune, Mr Forbes said his fiancee was a healthy woman who only went to to PMH three times – when she gave birth to their children, a boy, a girl and a set of twin boys.

On Sunday, July 23, 2017, Mr Forbes said Ms Bain, 44, called him at work around 1pm to tell him she “wasn’t feeling very well” and she was having stomach pains. Nearly 24 hours later, she was dead.

“Her sister took her to the hospital. I got there around 3pm and she was still waiting to be served. Around 10pm, she finally went in the back and the nurse gave her a morphine shot for the pain,” Mr Forbes said.

“I left her there around 1am on Monday to go get her phone and some stuff from home while she waited to see the doctor. She ended up getting an x-ray and was told she had kidney stones and she got a prescription and was told to come back in six days. She stayed there until about 4am because she was still hooked up to an IV and then she went home,” he said.

Mr Forbes, who did not live with Ms Bain, said he received a call around 2pm from their son Malik.

“That morning I went to go and get some fresh fish so I could make her some soup for her stomach. I went and got the fish and was cleaning it when my son called me crying. He said she couldn’t breathe and was vomiting,” he said.

“I left immediately but then I was told that her sister took her to PMH. So I went to get her some clothes because my son said she only had on a robe. I got to the hospital at 3pm and she was dead. I never expected her to be dead. The doctor said they tried to revive her and she came back but then her heart failed again and that was it. That’s when they told me her appendix burst.

“When I looked at her lying on that gurney I said, “Shannie, what do I tell the children - how do I explain it to them?

“I mean, I just don’t understand it. She had never been sick besides a cold and she only went to the hospital when she she had the kids.

“Why did they discharge her? How could they not know it was her appendix? How can you say she has kidney stones? I mean who makes such a big mistake? I have been trying to get answers but no one would tell me anything. No one at the hospital would speak to me.”

Mr Forbes said their children, Trinitee, 18, Craig Jnr, 17 and 13-year-old twins Malik and Vicario are all “coping” but he still feels like a big part of him is missing.

“The kids are okay but you can never really tell. I call myself ‘Madea’ because now I am mother and father,” he said.

“I mean life goes on but how do you really live when the person you love is gone? We really just take it one day at a time.”

The Tribune attempted to contact officials at PMH but calls were not returned up to press time.