'No sympathy for Clifford'
published: Sunday | April 6, 2003
THE EDITOR, Sir:
I COULD hardly believe the articles in the newspapers last Sunday, March 30, 2003, the frenzy on the radio call-in shows yesterday, the "classic" interview by a former president of the Medical Association of Jamaica on the radio programme, Nationwide, on the subject of the dismissal of forensic pathologist, Dr. Royston Clifford.
My family and I cannot forget the agony, torture and trauma we were put through several years ago when my brother perished in a tragic aircraft accident. We could not get the post-mortem conducted for two weeks after the accident, August 1, 1995. It was only after the intervention of the Prime Minister's Office that the body was made to be present at the funeral, August 10, 1995, and a further two weeks for the body to be cremated at which point the body was in such a state of decomposition that my husband, who was called upon to identify it has to this date been unable to speak about it.
Dr. Clifford was adamant that the body should not be released to Sam Isaac's Funeral Home, as requested, and was insistent that the body only be released to the Spanish Town Funeral Home. This was the cause of the delay in the post-mortem.
I have absolutely no sympathy for him, for I am sure now that he has been dismissed there are areas in his field where he can "bury" himself. There were so many calls to radio call-in shows with complaints about the system and it was not until this happened to our family that we believed it. I am sure there are numerous other families with similar stories.
