A 76-year-old woman yesterday became the 16th person known to have died from COVID-19 here.
May Portsmouth died on Sunday at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) and last night in a brief statement, the Ministry of Public Health said that the woman of Friendship, East Coast Demerara had contracted COVID-19.
However, her family is asking health authorities to recheck their records since they are of the belief that the woman did not die from the virus.
The woman’s son Lester Portsmouth last night told Stabroek News that news of his mother dying from COVID-19 is surprising to the family as they were not informed of this by health authorities. He stated too that it is unclear if doctors administered any PCR testing for the virus on his mother.
“This is all so surprising and funny to us because we were never informed that my mother was tested positive for COVID-19 or if they did any test her on her. The doctors never told us anything and nobody didn’t call us to say anything. We had to see it on the internet tonight (last night). They have our numbers but they didn’t call,” the son, who is still in disbelief said.
Asked how his mother got to the hospital, Lester said that she suffered a minor seizure on Sunday and was taken to the public hospital. She died while a patient at the Accident and Emergency Unit at the hospital.
He noted that prior to going to GPH, Portsmouth on Friday visited the Davis Memorial Hospital for her routine checkup and was given a clean bill of health. However, when she returned home, as she was climbing the stairs she slipped and hit her head.
This led the son to take her to the GPH for medical attention where he said his mother underwent several tests and was given some tablets before being discharged.
On Sunday morning they returned to the hospital after his mother suffered a minor seizure which he suspected was due to the fall.
“The seizure wasn’t long and she returned to her normal self but we didn’t take any chance and I told my sister go back to the hospital with her. She had some hard time breathing but she has had this problem all her life. At the hospital, they run some more test on her and they asked my sister to sign a paper for some medication to be given to our mother,” the son explained.
He said the sister, not sure what the medication was, called another sister overseas who is a nurse and after speaking with her she gave doctors permission to use the treatment.
The son related that his sister was asked to wait outside of the hospital but minutes later she was called back into the hospital and told that her mother had died.
“We don’t know what happened. When I last talk to my sister she said mommy was walking and the doctors were looking after her. We don’t know what happened but we accepted her death. It was hard but we accept it. But then tonight my sister called and said she saw Gordon Moseley posted mommy died from COVID. We don’t know anything about that. We didn’t receive any call from the COVID-19 team or the hospital asking us to go and get tested or asking us to stay home, nothing!” the son lamented.
He stressed further that at no point did doctors even inform them that they were going to test his mother for the virus.
“We need the Public Health Ministry to take back this report because we don’t feel my mother died from COVID. They are probably saying she died from COVID to clear themselves from the medication they give my mother or for us not to do a post mortem to see what she died from. We need answers we just can’t accept this,” the grieving son said.
According to Lester, since it was announced that the country recorded its first case of COVID-19, all precautions were taken by his family to protect themselves and mother.
“Look my mother don’t go nowhere since COVID start here. She always had her sanitizers and we would keep sanitizing the place because she is old. If anyone come to meet her they have to sanitize themselves too. We didn’t risk anything…” Lester said further as he called on the Ministry of Public Health to provide a detailed and clear explanation on the death of his mother.
On Saturday night the 15th COVID-19 death was recorded. That victim was Donna Ambrose-Greaves, 25, of Lethem Region 9. Ambrose-Greaves was the third person to have died from the virus within a week. She is the youngest COVID-19 fatality so far. Thirty-four-year old Abdool Khan of Bartica and 42-year-old Kevin Ridley of Albouystown were the other two COVID-19 fatalities over the last week.
Guyana has recorded a sudden spike in deaths after being able to keep the figure at 12 for weeks.
