“The hospital did not explore all options in my son’s situation and now he’s gone, someone will answer for that,” says Joanne Pua’auli, mother of nine year old Klement “Meke” Pua’auli, who died early Monday morning. She said since the day he was admitted into the Intensive Care Unit up until his death, there was no firm information from the hospital as to whether Meke was ever going to be medivaced off island for treatment for his heart problems.

In an emotional interview with Samoa News, the mother felt that the hospital did not explore all options for her son and this worries her as she now cannot trust the health care that the territory has for the rest of her family.

Meke suffered from Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT) — where his heartbeat will, from time to time, speed up at an abnormal rate. His mother set up a “go fund me” account to help their son at the time with financial assistance. Meke was in the Intensive Care Unit for over a month and had been coded more than ten times, said the mother.

She explained that the normal heart rate is 60 to 100 beats a minute, however, Meke’s heart rate reached 200 beats a minute sporadically over the last few weeks.

“He has been fighting this, and has come back to life — how many times — but this time the nurses were unable to save my baby, they tried everything but he was gone.”

“He left us around 4a.m., and it was heart breaking to see my baby go like that, knowing that as his mother I could not do anything to help my son.”

For his “go fund me” account, she had written, “Since we do not have a Cardiologist on island, it is with humble hearts that we seek your donation/help in order for Meke to see a cardiologist in Hawai’i. Since he hasn't been stable enough to fly on Hawaiian Air, our only other options are a military medivac or an air ambulance.”

She went on to say that this will not end here as she is looking at taking this to the next level because a hospital’s main goal is to save lives “but they failed in my son’s case. They don’t have a cardiologist on island, yet they won’t go beyond measures to get one to come for this young life.”

The mother told Samoa News that every time he woke up from being coded, he always said “I love you mom, I love you dad. He was trying to be strong for us as we stood there feeling hopeless each time he underwent a code blue.”

“He was such a happy child, always in high spirits, an unforgettable child,” she said. Meke was the third oldest of six children from Alao, who attended Marist St. Francis School.

She thanked the public for praying for their son and their financial assistance through the “gofundme” account that was established for financial assistance to help Meke seek treatment off island.

Last month hospital Chief Executive Officer, Taufete’e Faumuina told Samoa News that LBJ does not get involved with medivacs, “because of financial reasons.”

Mrs. Pua’auli told Samoa News earlier that her son could not travel on Hawaiian Airlines due to regulations by the Federal Aviation Administration and she had reached out to Congresswoman Aumua Amata and the Governor’s Office for assistance.

According to the LBJ CEO at the time,“our present off-island referral program only deals with cases that are approved by the off-island medical referral committee for round trip tickets — only to and from Honolulu. This case falls under the referral program except that HA cannot approve it, based on its own policies.”

Samoa News sends out our heartfelt condolences to the Pua’auli family in their time of grief.