A COVID-19 test done on one-year-old Mikhel Wong-Singh, who died at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) almost two weeks ago, has found that he was negative despite exhibiting symptoms of the virus.
The mother of the child, Nolene Williams, received the results of the test on Wednesday when she went to obtain the results of other tests that were done on May 2nd, one day before he passed, Williams maintained that she was not aware that any test for the virus was carried out on her child and added that she was told that they were awaiting the test to be done on the morning he drew his last breath.
Nolene related to this newspaper that she had gone to the lab to uplift the deceased child’s results but was told that they were already sent to the Emergency Room (ER). Across at the ER, she was not allowed in to see a doctor or nurse due to the strict COVID-19 measures and was told unless there was an emergency, there was nothing they could do. Understanding that she could not go in, she asked that someone bring the results to her instead but was told that that could not be done either.
It was at this point she reached out to this newspaper for help and contact was made with the GPHC’s Communications Manager, Chelauna Providence, through whom she was able to learn that Mikhel was tested for the virus. Williams was also asked to return again yesterday (Thursday) for the results for the blood work she had initially turned up for as both doctors that she needed to meet with were not in.
Returning yesterday, Nolene said she met with the doctors who said that the child was swabbed in her presence upon his death but the woman said that if this were true, she may have been too distressed to notice it was done. She added that whether he was swabbed in her presence or not, she knows for certain that it was not relayed verbally by any of the nurses to her. She only recalls undertakers arriving to take Mikhel’s body to the mortuary soon after.
She was able to uplift the results for Mikhel’s bloodwork and doctors informed her that everything checked out except for the child’s haemoglobin count, which was said to be low.
“They told me that he didn’t have to get the blood right away because he was not critical and could have wait until the next day for it. They said that they were shocked that he passed away. If they are doctors and they say that he was not so bad and then he died…,” Williams said before voicing her surprise that she knew the urgency of her child’s situation but the doctors didn’t.
On April 24th 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 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.
Three days later, she took him to Diamond Hospital when his conditioned worsened but the doctor there said he needed to finish the seven-day course of the medication he had been put on. However on April 30th, he wasn’t any better and she took him to the GPH where doctors said he needed a stronger does of antibiotics for an additional three days and sent them home. The very next day, Williams took Mikhel back to Diamond Hospital, where he was admitted before being transferred the next day to the GPH, where he did several tests before being sent to the COVID-19 station. Worried that he may be infected with the virus, Williams said that nurses didn’t allow her to put her son down on an available bed. According to her she held him in her hands from 4 pm until his death at 2 am. Half an hour before his death when his breathing got worse, a nurse was trying to get the child a room in the Intensive Care Unit but none was found. Williams said when her son died, nurses put him on the same bed she was not allowed to put him on earlier, trying to revive him.
The toddler’s death is still under investigation.
An autopsy report showed Mikhel to have died from bilateral bronchopneumonia, acute gastroenteritis, anaemia and tonsillitis. He was laid to rest last Wednesday.
