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Pago Pago – American Samoa
In an assessment conducted by the Health Committee last Thursday, senators expressed dissatisfaction with the reports on the death toll from the government’s main hospital (LBJ), senators said it was difficult to understand the reports and asked for more detailed reports, but they did not conduct another review in the future.
Witnesses present at the hearing included LBJ Director Dr. Akapusi Ledua and the hospital’s Chief Financial Officer, Sefanaia Kaumaitotoya, Deputy Chief Marketing Officer Dr. James Sunia and the hospital’s Director of Human Resources, Stanley Jacob.
This was recorded by Dr. He counted the number of deaths from 2020 to June 2024.
According to the director’s data, the death toll was about 330-406 per year from 2020 to December 2023. But as of June 2024, the death toll was 193.
Analyzing the number of deaths, 50% of them died in the hospital, and the other 50% were confirmed dead when they arrived at the hospital. In other words, they died in their families and villages, or died on the road, on the way to the hospital.
When looking at the number of people who died from any cause (the crude death rate), divide it by the number of people in the country, which is either 1,000 or 10,000, respectively.
Dr. According to the data, the “crude death rate” in American Samoa is 6 deaths per 1,000 people. And it is clear that the global “crude death rate” in 2020 is 7.7 per 1,000 people.
In the United States, there are 8.3 per 1,000 people, and these figures are based on estimates of 50,000 to 55,000 people in American Samoa.
Further analysis of the figures, namely the number of deaths per year, shows that in 2020, there were 330 deaths. In 2021, there were 336 deaths. In 2022, there were 406 deaths from Covid-19, and in 2023, there were 361 deaths. From January to June 2024, there were 193 deaths.
The Honorable Senator Satele Aliitai Lili’o briefed the Chairman of the Senate Committee, the Honorable Senator Tuiasina, Dr. Salamo Laumoli, that it was four days since the Senate had requested the list that Director General Lyndon Johnson had just sent. However, many of the figures in the report did not make sense to him.
Honorable Senator Wifanua understands the concerns of the Lyndon Johnson administration and the Chairman of the Senate Health Committee, who has spoken about this issue since it was raised last week, and the hospitals have been affected because of the comments made by the public.
The Honourable Senator’s speech was based on comments by the people who were unhappy about the very high number of deaths in hospitals, while the main hospital has been named as a mortuary by the government.
Sattler said he wanted to make it clear to hospital management that the committee chairman believed the Senate’s opinions were not the people’s, but that Senator Honor, members of the upper chamber all supported what many called LBJ’s, asylum.
Satele again said the Senate requested the list because they wanted to know the exact number of deaths, the cause of death, how they died in the hospital, and their families or villages, or the roads on the way to the hospital.
The honorable Senator suggested that in another review to be done again in the future, another list or report should be prepared again containing all the items missing from the first report.
He also asked the CMO representative that Dr. James Sunia had found a permanent CMO, Dr. Sunia, and today (yesterday) the LBJ Board of Directors began interviewing people for this opportunity.
Satele stressed the ability of doctors to perform their duties relying on medical equipment and asked Dr. Sunia, is the ‘CT Scan’ still working? To which Dr. Sunia, it has been two weeks since the ‘CT Scan’ stopped working. Dr. Sunia, the ordered parts for the machine just arrived last Monday and the technicians are working hard to fix the problem.
Satele also asked the CMO representative what the weight of a person is that would limit the ability to use the machine, to which Dr. Sunia responded, 350 pounds. Satele stated that most Samoans weigh 300 pounds, meaning that the machine could not be used on someone between 350 and 400 pounds.
The representative of Vaifanua wanted to know why the Lyndon Johnson administration had not investigated this situation when it purchased a “CT scan”. Dr. Ledua replied that they would therefore purchase a new CT scanner, which would probably cost more than £500. And he also mentioned that the hospital was waiting for the purchase of an MRI machine, which had not yet arrived.
The issue of lack of space for corpses at the mortuary was raised by Honourable Senator Arlo Paul Stevenson, who said that as the number of dead increased, there was no space and the hospital chapel was now being used to bury some bodies.
Arlo also said some bodies have been sitting in the morgue for up to three months, and he asked Chief Lyndon Johnson why that problem was happening or what was being done to address it.
Dr. Ledua, one of the main reasons is that there are families who are crying in the streets waiting for their families.
Director LBJ revealed that they have a law that states that the body can be kept in the morgue for 30 days, however, they have a hard time enforcing this law because of many reasons why the family members of the deceased request that the body be kept in the morgue.
He stressed that the morgue and hospital are the most important projects at present, and the bidding for the design and construction of the morgue has been launched, and work will begin once the contract is confirmed.
He also said that they will first build a place to place the coffins, and then take all the coffins out from inside the church so that they can start the restoration work so that they can use the church normally. The intention is to start the work in September.
Senate President Tuaolo Manaia Fruean asked how much it would cost to put the body in the morgue.
Dr. Tuolo is not confused and says the actual amount, whether it is $30 or $50, should be increased to $500 a day so that the bodies of the families can be removed quickly.
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