The Health Ministry on Monday reported that two more persons have died from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), taking Guyana’s death toll to 41.
James Downer, one of the three COVID-19 deaths recorded on Friday last
The patients were an 89-year-old man from Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), and a 47-year-old woman from Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni). According to the Ministry, upon admission to the medical health facility, a swab test was done on both patients, and following their death, the results returned as positive.
The day prior, the dreadful disease claimed the lives of four other persons. The first person was an 80-year-old man from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica). He was a patient of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation’s (GPHC) designated Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
His death was followed by a 78-year-old woman, who died while receiving treatment at the Lethem Hospital on Sunday morning.
Shortly after her death, a 53-year-old woman from the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) died at the GPHC at around 13:00h.
Later in the evening, 32-year-old Alician Sinclair, who was battling for her life in the GPHC’s COVID-19 ICU, succumbed.
Since August 16 to date, the Ministry has now recorded a whopping 17 COVID-19-related deaths – the highest since patient zero.
Severe pneumonia, deteriorating lungs
On Friday, the Ministry reported three COVID-19 deaths but did not release their age or gender. However, one of the persons was 73-year-old James Downer of Melanie, East Coast Demerara (ECD), who was suffering from severe pneumonia compounded with a bad lung.
His son-in-law, Devon Edwards, recalled the series of events leading up to the man’s demise, explaining that on August 14, 2020, his father-in-law had returned from Region One (Barima-Waini), where he works.
According to Edwards, Downer visited him at Kuru Kururu, Linden-Soesdyke Highway.
“When he came here, we thought that he drank a little bit and was drowsy because of how he came out of the vehicle, he did not come out normal. He sat down in the chair outside, and his daughter was talking to him, and he did not sound normal, so she called me, and I said ‘paps, what going on?’”
The elderly man went to take a nap but later family members noticed that he had not eaten.
“By the time we could reach the health centre, they did not want to see him since he came from an interior location. They said that we have to carry him straight to Diamond (hospital), so I took him to Diamond, and they did the checks and so on, but they did not say if it was COVID he had,” Edwards noted.
Edwards further added: “But they did their normal checks and signs, so they did another check and they said that he had to keep him in. So, I told them that they should test for the COVID because he came from the interior location, and his blood count was really low.”
Downer was then admitted and taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), where doctors informed family members that the man was suffering from severe pneumonia, and his lungs were in a bad condition.
“They called me the 24th of August 2020 and said that he was tested positive for COVID. Soon as I got that call, I closed up, and we went and got tested. Since then, we are home all the time isolated because we decided that we are going to isolate ourselves until the results come out,” Edwards asserted.
The grieving man has lambasted the health authorities for their slothfulness in processing COVID-19 results. He noted that it has now been 17 days since they have been in home isolation and have not gotten their results.
The man noted that he currently has a funeral to plan for his father-in-law and needs his results back so that he can go ahead with the funeral arrangements along with his business, which has been closed. (Shemar Alleyne)
