A day after Quincy Braithwaite publicly complained of health officials refusing to test him for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) despite displaying severe symptoms, he was tested on Friday.
Braithwaite, who is the ex-brother-in-law of health worker Jermaine Ifill, who died last week, days after testing positive for COVID-19, said health officials reached out to him and conducted the test on Friday night.
He is currently awaiting the results, which he said should be received today. Speaking of the ordeal, Braithwaite said it was “a terrible experience and hurt the most since I have been sick. They had to insert a long stick-like object up your nose and send it all the way to the back of your head. It was unbearable.”
Braithwaite disclosed that he continues to experience symptoms though yesterday was one of his best days since his ordeal began.
He noted that while in self-isolation, he has been using many home remedies such as fever grass tea, among others, and Vitamin C to boost his immune system. He also said that he has been using antibiotics.
Braithwaite said he is hoping for the best and that the COVID-19 test result will be negative.
He recalled that on March 25, his ex-wife called him and told him that Ifill was sick and that they were taking him to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), so he collected his two children from Ifill’s home. Two Saturdays ago, he said, his ex-wife called him and told him that Ifill was diagnosed with COVID-19.
In a video posted to Facebook on April 2, Braithwaite detailed his experience and related his struggle to get a test done by the Ministry of Public Health.
He explained that he had visited a private medical institution after he began having difficulty breathing. He had initially brushed it off but after the shortness of breath returned, he rushed to the hospital.
There, he met a doctor who conducted a series of tests on him before having an x-ray done. After the tests results came back, Braithwaite said, the doctor told him that he had a viral infection but he could not say what it was because all the tests he had done came back negative.
“He said that the only thing left to test for with the symptoms that I’m getting is the coronavirus,” Braithwaite added, before saying that the doctor then called the GHP and told them that he might have contracted COVID-19 after which he wrote a referral and advised him to go to the GPH.
Braithwaite said he arrived at the GPH around 3am that morning and upon arrival, he was screened. He said that he related to the person who was conducting the screening how he was feeling but he was asked to walk up and down the room.
“I told him ‘Look, me ain’t able with this. I feeling like I run a long distance’,” Braithwaite stated after which the person said that he understood. The health care worker then checked Braithwaite’s referral documents and told him that COVID-10 patients usually have several white spots in their system but his had only three.
Regardless, the health care worker called the person who was in charge at that time and Braithwaite said he was directed to return at 10:30am so he could be tested for COVID-19. But this never happened.
When he returned to the hospital, he said, he was still having difficulty breathing and they told him that he had to do another screening. After he questioned the reason for a second screening, he was told by health officials that “there is no cure for the corona.”
According to Braithwaite, he responded, “I just want to know what is going on with me” and was told that higher officials said he could not be tested unless he is showing 90% of the COVID-19 symptoms. “So I said, ‘What am I going to do now?’ And he said that the only thing he can tell me is to go home and isolate myself and I said, ‘In my condition? How I am breathing and going on I must go home and isolate myself?’” Braithwaite stated. He has been isolated since.
He said the healthcare system failed him because even with all his symptoms, he was not tested and the reason he was concerned is because he owns a business and he was in contact with numerous people every day.
