The man who died at the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH) last Thursday, after exhibiting symptoms that fueled suspicions that he had the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), was suffering from dengue fever for some time prior to his death.
When the now deceased man visited the hospital, he displayed symptoms of the flu that caused medical practitioners to be alarmed that he might be infected with COVID-19. His death led to the staff that dealt directly with him being put immediately into self-quarantine pending the outcome of his results, which were found to be negative. The nurses were allowed to return to work, as related to this newspaper by the Regional Information Officer for Region Three, Ganesh Mahipaul.
According to the Mahipaul, after nurses protested for more Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), they have since been provided with such. He stated that after the patient passed last Thursday night, and the nurses were quarantined, the nurses from the following shift voiced concerns about their safety upon hearing about the man’s death and seeing no nurses in the triage area were worried for their own safety. “Their demands were all met. The first demand they made was for the place to be sanitized. Thursday night before the man died, the hospital was sanitized by Vector Control but when they demanded that we sanitize the place we did it again on Friday through Vector Control. They had the basics like the gloves, the face masks and hand sanitizers. We provided them with more gloves, face masks, goggles, hand sanitizers and the PPE, which includes the protective coats. The PPE is mainly for medical practitioners and nurses who are directly dealing with possible victims,” he said.
It was further noted by him that the WDRH has three triage areas where sick persons are checked. The first triage area screens persons to ascertain whether they are possible victims of the virus or carrying a common cold or visiting the hospital for different reason while the other two triage areas deal with blood pressure testing and checking of temperatures.
However, because WDRH is the main hospital in Region Three and sees a high number of patients, each triage area is restricted to seeing no more than ten persons at a time.
The man who died, a resident of Windsor Forest, had been diagnosed with dengue fever by another health facility. He is believed to have died from a heart attack but an autopsy is still to be done to confirm the cause.
While it had been rumoured that the man had attended the wake of the first coronavirus victim, this was dismissed by Mahipaul who said that the man had no relationship with the family of the first victim.
It was said that though the amount of persons visiting the hospitals throughout the country have significantly dropped, there are still persons who are showing up at these health institutions with symptoms of the common cold or the flu.
“What is advisable is that if you have these symptoms, call the hotline numbers,” Mahipaul appealed. The most common symptoms of the coronavirus are fever, tiredness, dry cough and sometimes difficulty breathing. The Ministry of Public Health’s toll-free 24/7 hotline numbers are: 231-1166, 226-7480, 624-6674, 624-2819, and 624-3067.
