The family of James Downer, who had contracted the novel coronavirus prior to his passing last Friday are unsure whether the seventy-three-year-old man contracted the virus during his recent travel to the interior or while he was a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH).
Stabroek News spoke with the deceased’s son-in-law, Devon Edwards, who recounted Downer turning up at his and his wife’s (Downer’s daughter) home on Sunday, August 16. Edwards said that the late pensioner had a vending business he operated and had sent up some goods to the Linden/Soesdyke Highway, arriving after to sort out his affairs.
According to Edwards, his father-in-law was always a good-humoured person but when he arrived that Sunday, he didn’t seem his normal cheerful self. Initially, the couple thought that the man had had a drink too many. Downer’s daughter noticed his demeanour and drew this to Edwards’ attention who recalled that he told the elderly man that he looked unusually tired.
Edwards added that they tried to get him to eat some food but he refused. Downer had also told them that he hadn’t been feeling well for several days and had not eaten anything in four days. He also complained of shortness of breath. By the following day, Edwards said he took the man to the health centre in Kuru Kururu but said he wasn’t at all satisfied as the nurses there weren’t too keen to look after his father-in-law. The man said the nurses all seemed to have gotten busy at the same time as if they were preparing to head home although it was only around the midday hour.
Learning that Downer was experiencing shortness of breath and had just returned from the interior, Edwards said he was right away considered to be a suspected COVID-19 case and was referred to Diamond Hospital. At Diamond Hospital, Downer was checked by a doctor. The family later learnt that his haemoglobin was low. The family requested that a COVID-19 test be done taking into account his recent travels. He was put on oxygen and transported to the GPH.
At the GPH, Edwards said the man was kept in an isolation area before he was admitted to the hospital. When he returned to the hospital on Tuesday (August 18th) to drop off some of Downer’s belongings, he was told that the elderly man was suffering from severe pneumonia. He noted that he was able to talk to his father-in-law. When asked whether he talked to him over the phone, Edwards said that he was allowed into the ward which he believes housed suspected COVID-19 patients. However, the man noted that he was only allowed to step just a foot inside the area. He is suspicious that that if Downer was initially negative, that he could have contracted the virus in the same ward if the other patients who were there, were positive COVID-19 patients. Despite complaining of shortness of breath, Edwards said Downer showed no other symptoms of the virus. He shared his dismay with this newspaper also, explaining that during the time he spoke with the elderly man, he found out that he was provided with nothing to eat.
Downer’s test results would return positive on August 24. Communications officer, Chelauna Providence when contacted by this newspaper explained that if a person tests positive for COVID-19, they would have passed what is called an incubation period which is 14-28 days. “It takes fourteen to twenty-eight days for the virus to show up on a PCR test. Unless that person was at the hospital for 14-28 days where we could have taken a sample off of them, there is no way that virus would show up on a test…”
The communications officer added that if they felt that a patient was exposed to the virus while at the hospital, they would wait fourteen days before conducting a COVID-19 test.
Edwards noted that immediately after learning that his father-in-law tested positive for COVID, he and his partner decided to get tested the very day and decided to self-quarantine. However, they are yet to receive their results. Edwards, a technician at GPL, shared that both he and his partner closed their shop at their Kuru Kururu home and stayed away from the public. The GPH after learning that the pensioner tested positive, reached out to the family over the phone to ensure that they had started their quarantine but according to Edwards, they already had and didn’t wait to be told to do so. He noted that he is somewhat upset at the lengthy waiting process for results. The hospital, he said, checked in with him and his partner to find out if they were experiencing any symptoms, but they related to the GPH callers that there were none. Though they have not yet received their results, the couple were contacted on Monday via phone and cleared to return to work. Following the call, Edwards visited the Diamond Hospital where he uplifted a letter as proof of this upon his return to work.
Buried
The deceased’s family is currently making arrangements to have him buried. Downer’s wife said that on Tuesday (yesterday) when she turned up for a quotation at the Memorial Gardens Funeral Home and Crematorium, she was quoted a cost of $410,000, said to be the cheapest funeral package according to Edwards. Downer’s wife is of indigenous ethnicity so she visited the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs where she was able to get the same funeral package for $200,000 plus.
Edwards questioned why when there are other funeral homes that are cheaper in Guyana that the GPH prefers to use Memorial Gardens Funeral Home for their COVID-19 fatalities. Providence in speaking to this responded, “We send our bodies to Memorial Gardens because they know the protocol in dealing with COVID bodies.”
Downer sold ginger wholesale at the markets in Georgetown. He also sold eddoes and whenever he returned from Region One, would bring back Morocut (fish) to sell.
“We warned him about going there [Region One] but he still went anyway. He was up there for two to three weeks waiting to come back on the boat.” Edwards said.
Edwards recalled his brother-in-law (Downer’s son) telling him that the deceased’s doctor had complained to him that Downer kept taking his oxygen mask off three days prior to passing away. Edwards said he last spoke to Downer on Wednesday August 26 via phone and his father-in-law complained of shortness of breath and indigestion. They were unable to contact him after this as his phone kept ringing out.
On Friday, he said, the doctors told him to come to the hospital as they had some news for the family and suspecting that it wasn’t good news, he called a brother who had not been in contact with Downer to meet with the doctors. It was then that the family’s worst fears were confirmed.
Downer was one of three COVID patients who passed away on Friday last.
