MAY PEN, Clarendon;

Relatives of 76-year-old Simeon Griffiths of 19 Miles district, Clarendon, whom it is believed died under questionable circumstances at the May Pen Hospital, are securing the services of a private pathologist to conduct an autopsy on his body.

The senior citizen was reportedly admitted to the medical facility on October 7, for respiratory complications and pneumonia.

However, on October 9, when his relatives went to visit him, he was found slumped headway over a chair and bleeding.

Dr. Winston Dawes, the senior medical officer at the hospital, explained that the patient perhaps got off the bed and while sitting in the chair suffered 'sudden death', as a result of a heart condition and pneumonia.

He said the family is "free to have a lawsuit made out against the hospital, although I don't see to what merit - this is a gentleman who has suffered many serious illnesses and was even on oxygen," Dawes said.

- Stephanie Elliott