Although her toddler was found to have exhibited symptoms of COVID-19 before his death, grieving mother Nolene Williams has said no test for the virus was done afterward.
In an interview on Sunday, Williams told Stabroek News that a post-mortem report showed that the causes of death for the child, Mikhel Wong-Singh were given as bilateral bronchopneumonia, acute gastroenteritis, anaemia and tonsillitis.
Williams said she spent her last hours with him at a COVID-19 station at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), a tent where other patients were visibly showing signs of suffering from flu and having shortness of breath. She recalled trying to put her crying baby down on a bed under the tent but nurses were saying that they weren’t sure whether he had contracted the virus and therefore she should keep him in her hands. She held him all the while he cried while receiving oxygen. A nurse said that they would test him the morning of the next day for the virus but it never happened.
A devastated Williams said she held her son in her arms from 4 pm on Saturday May 2nd until 2 am on Sunday, when he died in her arms. The woman said that she remembers rain falling that night and the wind blowing in under the tent, where she rocked Mikhel. At 1 am his breathing had gotten worse, then half an hour later she recalled a nurse saying they needed to get him to a room in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) while making calls to a doctor about a room they could use to keep the child. At 2 am when Mikhel passed, a room still had not been found. “That’s when they take him from me and they pressing, pressing him for he to get back he breath but he done gone. That’s when they say to me that ‘Ma’am we sorry that we couldn’t save your son’s life’. They should do a COVID test, the first thing when you reach there. They just left me and me child to suffer there”, Williams said as she began crying.
GPHC’s Communications Manager, Chelauna Providence told Stabroek News yesterday that the death of the baby is currently under investigation and no further information can be provided.
Earlier on the previous day, the child underwent X-rays and blood tests. While the doctor explained that the X-rays showed everything to be fine, Williams said she was told that her son needed blood and that she needed to grant permission by signing a document which she says she did. However, he never received any blood nor did she receive the results of those tests he would have taken on May 2nd. Asked why the child needed blood, she said she was never informed.
Williams had taken Mikhel to the health centre along the Linden-Soesdyke Highway, where she lives, after she noticed he had a fever, shortness of breath and couldn’t keep his food down. Doctors told her that he had an issue with his tonsils. As a result, he was treated with Cloaxcillin Sodium suspension (an antibiotic used to treat a variety of bacterial infections) along with Paracetamol. However, the one-year-old got worse and two days later he wasn’t eating anymore but would only breastfeed.
On April 27th, she took him to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre, where doctors told her that the toddler needed to complete the medication course which was prescribed for seven days.
When his condition worsened, she took him to the GPH on April 30th and she was subsequently sent to the COVID-19 station after being told by nurses that Mikhel had symptoms similar to that of the virus.
Doctors confirmed for a third time that the child was suffering from tonsillitis and said he needed a stronger dose of antibiotics, which he was supposed to take for three days.
By the following day his health was fast deteriorating so she took him back to Diamond Hospital, where more blood tests were done and he was admitted and put on oxygen and saline. Williams said her child had a temperature throughout the night and recalls nurses giving him an injection but his fever left only for a bit before returning. She recalls nurses injecting something into the saline that was said to help his fever. The following day on May 2nd, he was transferred to the GPH.
“This is the worst Mother’s Day ever. He was our baby. He called me ‘Mama’ and his father ‘Dada’ and he called his sister and brother by their names. He made us laugh”, Williams lamented.
The mother said she thought that even after her child passed they would still do a COVID-19 test but none was done.