yesterday sharply criticised Bermuda's only medical hospital.

Ms Dawnette Williams, who returned from Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children this weekend with her son Gerneko, said she could have saved time, thousands of dollars, and possibly her baby's life if his condition had been diagnosed correctly in Bermuda.

Gerneko was rushed to Canada on April 3, shortly after a regular check-up by doctors here revealed that he had two holes in his heart and his heart was not receiving enough blood and oxygen.

Local doctors explained that Gerneko's arteries were too small to allow blood and air to pass to the heart and he would have to go to Toronto or Boston for surgery, 23-year-old Ms Williams said.

Gerneko was to have undergone three operations; the first to "give him back his colour,'' the second to close the two holes and the third to rectify his artery problem.

But Ms Williams said when she arrived in Canada with her son, doctors said there was nothing they could do and questioned why Gerneko's condition had not been diagnosed earlier and why he had been sent to the hospital at all.

Without surgery, Gerneko is not expected to live past his first birthday. But if operated on, Toronto doctors said he would become "a vegetable.'' Ms Williams, who said she is taking Gerneko's condition "one day at a time,'' yesterday questioned why it took doctors in Bermuda two months to discover the holes in her son's heart.

"When he was born, the doctors told me he had a heart murmur,'' she said.

"But they told me most children grow out of it.

"At his six-week check-up the eco-test (similar to an X-ray of the heart) lasted two hours. 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.

"They said I should take him to Canada or Boston where he could get the operation which would fix the holes.

"When we got out there (Toronto), they did the same eco-test which showed what we already knew.'' While Ms Williams admitted that her son could probably not have been operated on when he was first born, she said she should have been informed about the holes in Gerneko's heart earlier.

"The holes had to have been there from birth although they were never pointed out to me,'' she said. "I believe if this was diagnosed, it (Gerneko's condition) would not have been as far as it is.

"I think this is the pits because while Bermuda is upgrading the prison, they cannot upgrade the hospital.'' Ms Williams estimated that Gerneko's stay in Toronto alone cost about $10,000, with the fee of his hospital room at $2,000 a day.

She said insurance will cover about 80 percent of the expenses and the Lady Cubitt Compassionate Association (LCCA) would cover some of the cost. But she added that she will have to pay the remainder and pay the LCCA back.

Ms Williams stressed that she will continue to treat Gerneko as she does her healthy two-year-old and urged others to do the same. She said she would now secure the services of local consultant paediatrician Dr. June Hill.

But for now, the young mother said she would cope with the situation by returning to work and keeping busy.

"It's like waiting for a bomb to go off,'' she said. "If I sit around here, I'll just worry.'' TRAGIC NEWS -- Ms Dawnette Williams and Mr. Gerald (Apples) Brangman returned home from Toronto Hospital for Sick Children this weekend after learning that nothing could be done to correct their two-month-old son, Gerneko's heart problem. Ms Williams has criticised doctors here for not diagnosing her son's condition earlier.