While Public Hospital (PHA) officials deny that 62-year-old Nathalie Nottage Lundy died after contracting the Acinetobacter Baumannii at the Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) her three children are claiming otherwise and threatening a lawsuit against the government.

Astrid Bodie, Quentin Bethel and Shawn Bethel said they are trying to figure out how a hip surgery led to death for their mother.

The family has since been slapped with a hospital bill for $8,956.

Mr. Bodie said more than two months ago her mother suffered a slip and fall accident and fractured her hip.

She was admitted to the PMH and underwent a surgery that they said seemed to be successful, but according to the siblings, Mrs. Lundy, while still in hospital, constantly complained about a stomach ache and was always drowsy and disoriented during her recovery.

Mrs. Bodie said the doctors at PMH told them that their mother was simply suffering from gas pains and days later she was discharged from the hospital.

Once home, the irate family said their mother’s condition worsened as she appeared to be in a vegetative state most days and was unresponsive.

“We called the ambulance and took her to Doctors Hospital to at least find out what’s going with her stomach, at least, because it seemed to be the biggest problem,” Mrs. Bodie said. “The doctor told us that my mother had a very bad infection and that her kidneys were being attacked from this infection called sepsis.”

“She said that is something you can catch from a catheter bag or a line inside of you. She noticed that my mother had a surgery from the scar on her thigh and that’s when she probably caught the infection because it was so severe that her organs were getting ready to shut down and her body was full of toxins.”

Due to expensive medical bills though, Mrs. Bodie said they transferred the ailing woman back to PMH where she was then admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where the doctors informed the family that Mrs. Lundy would have to undergo emergency surgery as the sepsis was eating through her kidneys.

The family said they were then told that this surgery to remove the damaged parts of her kidneys and bladder and flush out her stomach was successful and that all the BTC retiree needed to do was rest and allow her body to regenerate nutrients.

Despite this though, Mrs. Bodie and her brothers said things still took a turn for the worse.

“Acinetobacter is what they said it was,” she added. “They told us this is what she had and we had no idea what it was. But the doctor told us that that my mother wouldn’t make it because her body has already been through so much trauma.”

“They said this bacteria was already a kidney killer and the fact that her kidney was just trying to catch itself was going to be rough. So I asked him if she was just supposed to stay there and die, but they said they would do all they could for her.”

Lundy died in the early morning hours on Friday, September 7.

On Monday the PHA released a press statement blaming the surgery for the woman’s death.

“The Princess Margaret Hospital wishes to clarify reports surrounding the death of a patient in the Intensive Care Unit on Friday 7 September, 2012,” the release read.

“The patient, a female aged 62 years was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit after she returned to hospital following a prior surgery. The patient was admitted to the ICU. During her stay she was colonised for the Acinetobacter Baumannii bacteria. Colonisation is the identification of an organism not causing an infection. An autopsy is scheduled to determine the cause of death, but at this time all indicators signal a post surgery incident.”

The woman’s sons said they were “devastated to hear such lies.”

“That is nonsense,” Quentin said. “They are trying to say now that she died from the surgery which is not true. I need a copy of that press statement because they are going to end up biting their own tongue.”

“They know they have a problem in there and they refuse to get rid of it.”

“She went in there a healthy woman,” Shawn added. “There was nothing wrong with my mother, she had a simple hip surgery and was never the same.”

The siblings said this week their mother was supposed to be on vacation in Pennsylvania with her sister, a trip they said she had planned for months and was looking forward to.

On Tuesday Health Minister Dr. Perry Gomez told the Bahama Journal he had “no knowledge of the story.”