…Region 9 hospital staff all tested negative – RHO
By Shemar Alleyne
As health authorities continue to point fingers as to where 25-year-old Donna Ambrose Greaves – a teacher of Arapaima Nursery School in Lethem, Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), may have contracted the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) disease, a doctor who administered treatment to the woman has now tested positive for the virus.
Donna Ambrose Greaves and her husband in happier times
The female doctor, who is stationed at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), has been placed in quarantine along with other persons at the hospital who had contact with the now-deceased woman.
A well-placed source within the Public Health Ministry has since confirmed that several patients and staff with whom the doctor has had contact, along with patients in the female ward in which the Lethem mother of one was placed after being transferred from the Lethem Regional Hospital, have been tested.
Regional Health Officer (RHO), Dr Naail Uthman
Initially, Greaves was battling with a C-Section-related injury after giving birth to her son and for the past month, the young teacher had been experiencing severe pain. However, earlier in June, she was taken to the Lethem Regional Hospital, where it was revealed that she is suffering from high blood pressure. She was treated and sent home.
On June 25, her health began to deteriorate, and she was rushed to the Lethem Regional Hospital. There, she was informed that her blood pressure was high, which was also compounded with a low blood count. A COVID-19 test was done after her sister, who went to her aid, travelled from Georgetown to Lethem.
In the meantime, she was treated for high blood pressure, but doctors at the institution could not get the blood count under control. A rapid COVID-19 test was also done, which came back negative. After spending two days at the regional hospital, she was air-dashed on June 27, to the city for further medical care.
“My wife and a regular maternity case that had complications, so the two of them flew out together, and they had some technical difficulties in the air. She was on oxygen and flew her out consciously, and while in the air, they ran out of oxygen, and they had to do some an emergency landing in Timehri, and she was transported to the public hospital by an ambulance on oxygen,” Franklin Greaves explained.
The grieving husband explained that after six hours, doctors managed to stabilise her.
Doctors told relatives that she was suffering from an anaemic disorder. However, she had a serious reaction while treatment was being administered.
The distraught husband stated that his wife called him on June 29 and said that she had an itchy throat, and needed mints and vapour rub, and that a family member should visit as she was placed in the female ward.
She was taken back to the ICU in an unconscious state. She never regained consciousness and died on July 5. Her husband said he is now left with numerous questions and he is demanding a full probe into the circumstances that led to his wife’s demise.
He added, “I am not fighting for her because she is already gone, but I am fighting for the system in which the public can have trust in,” he noted.
Meanwhile, this publication reached out to Regional Health Officer (RHO) for Region Nine, Dr Naail Uthman, who confirmed that all of the hospital staff that were in contact with Greaves were tested for COVID-19 and those results returned negative. They were all, nonetheless, placed in quarantine.
