Lethem school teacher dies after contracting COVID-19

ꟷ GPHC refutes claims woman contracted virus while being treated at facility

A teacher of the Arapaima Nursery School in Lethem, Region Nine (Upper Takatu-Upper Essequibo), is Guyana’s latest COVID-19 death.

Twenty-five-year-old Donna Ambrose Greaves, a mother of a 7-year-old boy, passed away early Sunday morning at the Georgetown Public Hospital where she was a patient in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) since July 1.
The woman was reportedly flown to Georgetown from Lethem after she was complaining of severe headaches and weakness.
Franklin Greaves, Donna’s husband, in a Facebook post said that she had fallen ill in Lethem late in June and was air-dashed to the city as her condition worsened.
The man said that his wife had initially tested negative for COVID-19 while in Lethem, but during her stay at the GPHC, her tests came back positive.
“She was suffering a long time now and it was not from the COVID. She was admitted at the Lethem Hospital, and was transferred out to the Georgetown Public Hospital. That is where we figure out that she was contaminated; because she did test here and all come back negative”, the man explained.
The teary husband added that everyone who came into contact with his wife in Lethem, including the doctors and nurses, tested negative for the deadly virus. However, they were all placed in quarantine.
Greaves said that it has been more than a week since he had any contact with his wife.
So far, there has been no evidence that points to her contracting the virus in the Georgetown Hospital, but the husband said his wife had no exposure to the virus as far as he knows.
Franklin also underscored that he will be following up with action against the Georgetown Public Hospital, since “they infected her”.
“This was done by accident, or their negligence …with over a span of the first day she out here she got infected and then her symptoms begin, she was then rushed to the ICU, where she spent the last five days in there battling”, the man noted.
Meanwhile, the Board of Directors and Administration of the GPHC refuted claims that the dead woman contracted the virus while being a patient at the institution.
“While our commitment to medical confidentiality restricts us from sharing details of Ms Greaves’ clinical records, we maintain that these claims are furthest from the facts, and wish to state in a definitive manner that Donna Greaves did not contract COVID-19 at the GPHC”, the release read.
The institution said it strongly condemns the proclivity to cast blame on their hard-working and dedicated doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers who continue to risk their lives daily to care for patients in the wake of a deadly pandemic
Since COVID-19 touched the shores of Guyana, the country has seen a continuous increase in the number of cases. Within the last week, there have been three deaths.
Guyana’s 14th COVID 19 death was 34-year-old Abdool Khan, a father of three of Bartica who succumbed while being treated at the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on July 2.
Prior to the businessman’s death, Guyana’s 13th COVID-19 death at the GPHC was identified as 42-year-old Kevin Ridley of Albuoystown, Georgetown.
Ridley was admitted to the hospital’s Accident and Emergency Unit after complaining of shortness of breath. Doctors at the hospital then conducted a COVID-19 test which came out positive, and the man died just moments after at the hospital.