Head physician at the Kumaka District Hospital in Moruca, Dr Derron Moonsammy was recently discharged from isolation where he had been for more than a month after contracting the coronavirus back in June.
The father of one shared that he is relieved and elated to finally be able to reunite with his family. Though he is out, he is currently on leave as there are a few more days left before he returns to work.
“Finally discharged. Thanks to the Almighty for His continued blessing. Thanks to all those who supported me while in isolation. God is Good and merciful…,” the doctor had posted on social media on Monday as many of his friends wished him to stay safe now that he was out. According to Moonsammy he was last tested July 22 then on July 25 and his results returned as negative. However, he still had a cough which required him to remain in isolation up until August 2. He noted that he still has a bit of a cough but is experiencing no other symptoms and feels almost good as new.
Stabroek News had reported on July 26 that asymptomatic patients will be discharged from isolation at least 10 days after their first positive test. The Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Karen Gordon-Boyle had stated that this new protocol is keeping with the updated recommendations from the WHO for discharging patients from isolation. Previously, a patient needed two consecutive negative tests results before they would be discharged. This new protocol is enacted where the patient has no serious symptoms or is asymptomatic.
His time in isolation, Moonsammy had said, was a reflective one, during which time he wrote a book on how God has kept him throughout. He used this time also to pen numerous poems which he posted on his social media page. The poems are based on love, death, marriage, medicine, God, and COVID-19.
As previously stated in an interview with this newspaper, Moonsammy as the doctor-in-charge, saw many of the suspected COVID-19 cases before they were tested for the virus. Prior to being put into isolation, Dr Moonsammy shared that he was first put in quarantine after he came into contact with Guyana’s 11th COVID-19 fatality, 59-year-old Vincent Torres, a resident of Moruca, who was a patient at the Kumaka District Hospital.
Torres died on May 22.
Moonsammy had said he tried to pinpoint just when he contracted the virus but the possibilities were many as he had seen a number of patients on a daily basis. Among the possibilities was having to use hospital gowns which were a size too small since the hospital was out of his size and consequently, on several occasions, his gowns tore. In addition he had shared that he cut his hand while on duty at one time and also confessed to engaging in conversations outside of work without wearing a facemask.
Prior to being swabbed for the virus test, the doctor was experiencing pains at the back of his eyes along with pain in his left arm, which he had broken a while ago. In addition, he was getting a fever. At first he thought that his dengue fever had returned as he had tested positive on a previous occasion. Most of the symptoms happened during the first few days of testing positive for COVID-19, among them, shortness of breath, increased heart rate, diarrhoea, tremors, high blood pressure, and burning in the nose, but by a week later, he only had a cough.
Some months before, Moonsammy had been instrumental in overseeing the construction of several isolation and quarantine sites in the communities at Moruca, namely, Kwebanna, Waramurri and Bemichi. The construction began more than a month before the death of Torres, yet despite all the preparations, Moruca became one of the COVID-19 hotspots in Guyana.
