HUNT'S WIFE IS DEAFBy Andre Bagoo Thursday, November 12 2009
A SUDDEN and dramatic deterioration of her hearing has left Carolyn Hunt, the wife of Sports Minister Gary Hunt, deaf.
Yesterday, Hunt confirmed his wife’s diagnosis but would not comment on information reaching Newsday that the Government paid $324,069.13 in medical expenses to help Mrs Hunt get treatment related to her condition.
The Minister and Mrs Hunt’s medical and travelling expenses were taken-up by the Government to cover the period from when Mrs Hunt suddenly experienced hearing loss in December 2008 up to June of this year when a procedure for the insertion of a cochlear implant was scheduled.
The expenses broke down into: $53,160.85 for a trip to the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, United States, between December 8 to December 13, 2008; $42,758.28 for another trip to the same hospital between March 8 to March 15, 2009 and $228,150 for the cochlear implant procedure done at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in June, 2009.
Cabinet gave approval for the costs of the two trips to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore which saw Hunt accompany his wife on one of them.
In February, Cabinet was informed that Mrs Hunt had suffered sudden hearing loss in late 2008. The Cabinet was also informed that Mrs Hunt had been advised by her doctors that the treatment required to deal with the problem was not available in Trinidad.
As a result, Cabinet agreed to pay for her expenses for a trip she made three months earlier in December to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. That trip, totalling $53,160.85, saw her incur $38,519.90 in medical expenses, $6,991 for airfare, $5,935.41 in accommodation for the five-day trip and $1,714.54 for medication.
In April, Cabinet approved funding for another trip for follow-up medical attention incurred in March when Hunt accompanied his wife to the hospital in Baltimore. That $42, 758.28 trip broke down into $15, 828 for airfare for the couple, $6, 667.47 for accommodation and $20, 262.81 for Mrs Hunt’s medical treatment.
Newsday understands that the procedure at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex was done by a team of doctors flown in from Johns Hopkins in June. The medical procedure in respect of the cochlear implant for Mrs Hunt cost US$36,000 (TT$228, 150). The procedure, done by the team from Johns Hopkins, also involved a local team of doctors.
A cochlear implant is an electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing by directly stimulating any functioning auditory nerves inside the cochlear with an electric field. Mrs Hunt would not be able to hear without this implant.
According to the Eighty-Ninth Report of the Salaries Review Commission (SRC), a government minister is entitled to medical care once it occurs within Trinidad and Tobago. The SRC notes that ministers have an entitlement to medical attention or treatment and prescribed drugs for themselves, spouses and children at any health care facility under the Regional Health Authorities, including the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex.
“My wife is deaf,” Hunt said yesterday. “Please understand that. I am a political target, but I do not want my wife to be attacked.”
Mrs Hunt’s medical troubles will remind many of a line of successive government ministers and their spouses who have had to endure medical troubles while in high-pressure public office. Among them is Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday whose wife Oma Panday last year underwent treatment for heart problems in London. Panday himself has a history of medical and heart troubles. As does Prime Minister Patrick Manning who last year flew to Cuba for surgery to treat a cancerous kidney in Havana at the expense of the Cuban government.
Expressions of sympathy and compassion for Mrs Hunt were given yesterday, particularly as her husband is now the subject of public criticism for expenditure by his ministry of $2 million, the cost of a giant national flag at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.
