By Shemar Alleyne
Saying goodbye to a loved one can be devastating and especially stressful and complicated during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
At times, it may feel like it is too much to handle as in the case of the Paul family who lost their loved one to the deadly virus earlier this week.
Seventy-four-year-old Milton Paul of Campbellville Housing Scheme, Georgetown took his last breath while in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Georgetown Public Hospital.
According to family members, Paul had suffered from diabetes, asthma, and hypertension. This was coupled with a stroke that he recently suffered.
Paul’s wife, Janet Handy told Guyana Times that she took her husband to the Kitty Health Centre after he complained of feeling unwell. While there, his temperature was checked, and it was normal.
The doctors then checked his blood sugar, which was also normal, and his blood pressure, which was skyrocketing.
He was given saline and some medications and sent home. After returning home, Paul retired to bed as he awaited his lunch. During the day, he started to experience breathing complications.
Ambrose-Greaves
His wife noted that he had requested something to eat. After eating, she said that he called out for her and as she checked on him, he held onto her hands and squeezed them tightly. His tongue, she added, was out of his mouth.
This, she said, prompted her to take him to the Georgetown Public Hospital to seek medical attention. He was taken to the Accident & Emergency Unit and was admitted.
“We got a car and carried him in the taxi. Soon as we carried him and reached at the hospital, they said to carry him through Emergency. When we carried him to the Emergency, they watched at him and said, “eh, eh, this old boy like he got COVID-19,” the grieving widow explained.
According to her, hospital officials did not inform the family that they would be conducting a COVID-19 test. By this time, Paul had fallen unconscious and was expected to undergo a CT scan.
“They put him on the life machine, and they said that he is not taking any treatment. At 3:00 clock, the doctor send and call me, and when I go, she said no sense they fight up and do a head scan, because he is not responding to nothing. So, she said that ‘he is far gone’,” Handy remarked.
The grieving woman left the hospital around 4:00h on the morning of Saturday, July 8. The aggravated widow is contending that “when you look now, they took him and pushed him in the COVID-19 Ward. Why you put him there? If you know, he in come in there with COVID-19 and he big, why put him there?” as she questioned health authorities.
On July 10, 2020, a COVID-19 test was done on Paul, but he subsequently died. His results came back as negative. But family members are still baffled as to how he might have contracted the deadly virus, as he does not leave the house.
In fact, family members said that they have not tested positive for the virus despite being in contact with the dead man.
“I can’t understand that he didn’t go there with that, why they put him in that room? That is what beating me,” Handy said as tears trickled from her eyes.
She described her husband as a loving person. She added that she spent 30 years with him and was proud to be his wife.
