Nature Isle News (NIN) has received news of the passing of Dr. Carissa Etienne.
Dr Carissa Etienne is a former Pan American Health Organisation director and WHO’s Regional Director for the Americas.
The 71-year-old from Dominica passed away in the US in the early hours of Friday morning close family sources told NIN.
Dr Etienne collapsed in her bathroom during the night, hours after being given a clean bill of health by her doctor after undergoing back surgery earlier this year, a close friend said.
She was rushed to hospital by ambulance where she died a short time later.
Dr Etienne was in her second five-year term as PAHO director.
She was passionate about universal health coverage and a much-loved daughter of the soil among the nature island’s residents.
Speaking to NIN in an exclusive interview from the US, her first cousin Ackroyd Birmingham said he received the dreaded call after 2 am on Friday, December 1, 2023, that “she complained of not feeling well.”
“She was at the doctor yesterday (November 29) and was told she was okay…my wife and I were at her home last night and she was jovial…she spoke about getting her hair done,” he said.
“I got a call after 2 am saying she wasn’t well and her sister who resides in London and is a nurse was at her home to assist her and performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while waiting for the ambulance to arrive, she was taken to hospital but died a few hours later,” he stated.
Dominica’s Health Minister Cassani Laville expressed “shock” at her passing saying that she was “a stalwart in the health sector and her passing has left a void not only in Dominica but internationally.”