that "everything possible was done'' in Bermuda for a two-month-old boy with terminal heart problems.

Mr. Martin was responding to complaints made by Ms Dawnette Williams, mother of baby Gerneko Williams, to The Royal Gazette earlier this week.

Ms Williams, just back with Gerneko from Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children where she learned that his condition was inoperable, criticised doctors here for not diagnosing her son's condition earlier.

She said she could have saved time, thousands of dollars, and possibly her baby's life if his condition had been diagnosed earlier and she had been informed.

Ms Williams said she was told about the holes in her son's heart and his small restrictive arteries shortly before she rushed him to Toronto earlier this month.

"At his six-week check-up the echo (cardiography) test (cardiac ultrasound) lasted two hours,'' she said. "But they did not say anything to me. Then, one day before we had to be in Toronto, they told me about the holes in his heart.

"The holes had to have been there from birth.'' But Mr. Martin said: "Staff at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital have reviewed the care provided to Gerneko Williams and concluded criticisms reported in the Gazette are unreasonable.

"Everything possible was done for the baby in Bermuda. He was seen by the Board's cardiologist and had a complete echo cardiography study on the new unit installed at KEMH within the past two years.'' Mr. Martin said hospital staff were reluctant to conclude Gerneko's condition was inoperable in the absence of a full review by a team of specialists at the Hospital for Sick Children.

But, he pointed out, "Dr. Viera Rose, head of the team of cardiovascular surgeons and cardiologists who reviewed Gerneko's case in Toronto concluded the referral from Bermuda was `quite appropriate'.

He added that Dr. Rose, who is senior staff cardiologist and professor of paediatrics at the Hospital for Sick Children, said Ms Williams' complaints to this paper were "absolutely incorrect'' and there was no way medical staff in Bermuda could definitively conclude the condition was inoperable in the absence of referral to a tertiary care centre.

However, Mr. Martin could not answer questions about whether the holes in Gerneko's heart could have been detected at birth, nor whether Ms Williams should have been informed about the hospital's conclusions before sending her to Toronto.