MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — Shockwaves are rippling through Montego Bay after the sudden passing of respected ophthalmologist Dr Winsome Hastings, who died in a Florida hospital on August 25, just two days after her husband, Donovan Clark, passed away at another facility.
Friends and relatives say the couple’s deaths feel “surreal”, leaving loved ones stunned and the city in mourning.
Dr Hastings, who was widely regarded as one of western Jamaica’s leading eye specialists, was born on October 30, 1943, in Montego Bay. A past student of Montego Bay High School, she studied medicine at The University of the West Indies (UWI), graduating in 1973, before specialising in ophthalmology in St Louis, Missouri.
She began her career at Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) as a consultant in the Eye Department, serving not only Montego Bay but also Mandeville and Savanna-la-Mar, where she practised on weekends to meet the shortage of specialists. Later, she opened a private practice on Orange Street in Montego Bay and operated a clinic in Florida before returning home permanently after Hurricane Andrew.
It was during her years at UWI that she met Donovan Clark, who would become her husband of more than 40 years. The couple, who shared one son, Alexi, divided their time between Jamaica and the United States in recent years, particularly due to Clark’s illness. Clark, who became a licensed real estate agent during his time in Florida, died on August 23. Hastings, hospitalised at the time, succumbed just two days later.
Dr Hastings is being remembered as a pioneer in ophthalmology whose decades of service at CRH, her private practice, and her mentorship of younger doctors left an indelible mark on western Jamaica. Her passing, alongside her husband’s, has been described as a double tragedy that has left Montego Bay in deep mourning.
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