Less than a day after members of her family were told that they were all infected with COVID-19, a 74-year-old woman succumbed yesterday at the Wismar Hospital in Linden.
Estella Williams, who was a resident of Moblissa, in Region Ten, is officially the 132nd person to die after contracting COVID-19 in Guyana. Her death was confirmed by Ministry of Health (MoH) officials and her relatives.
Coleen Williams, a daughter of the deceased, told Stabroek News that Estella died around 10 am yesterday. She disclosed that her mother had suffered a stroke about two weeks ago but was discharged a few days later and relatives were left to care for her.
Coleen suspects that she may have been the person who infected other members of her family as she visited Georgetown a few days before testing positive. Following her return to Moblissa, Coleen said, she developed minor symptoms of the virus but as the days passed those symptoms got more severe.
On October 29th, Coleen said, she decided to go to the Wismar Hospital to find out what was wrong with her and was told that she would have to be tested for COVID-19 as it seemed that she was suffering from symptoms of the virus.
According to Coleen, she was tested that very night and was isolated at the hospital. She received her test result on October 31st, confirming that she was infected with the virus. On Monday, she added, a team of doctors went to her home in Moblissa to swab her family who were all suffering from mild symptoms of the disease. “We all had the cold and so on and some of them (family members) lost their sense of smell,” she said.
On Wednesday, it was confirmed that all 14 members of the family, including six children, were infected with COVID-19. The deceased’s husband, who is 79, and who also had a stroke a few years ago, was also COVID-19 positive.
A few hours after the family received their results, Coleen said, her sister called and told her that their mother was not feeling well and it would be best if she was taken to the hospital. She said she informed staff at the hospital of the situation and asked that an ambulance go to Moblissa to transport her mother. Before Estella was hospitalised, she suffered from fever and a very bad cough.
“She (Estella) was getting fever and she had a cold in her chest and then my sister called me and told me what to do and that mommy was getting more weak, so I tell the nurse to send an ambulance for her and so that’s how she came to the hospital,” she said.
Estella arrived at the hospital around 5 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon and was placed in the same room where Coleen was being isolated.
Coleen noted that when their mother arrived at the hospital she seemed to be struggling to breathe and thus she was given an oxygen mask and saline. She added that the nurses at the hospital checked on her mother regularly but when she asked them if her mother was going to be transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) given the apparent severity of her condition, she was told that they were not.
She went on to say that around the time that her mother died, she observed that the woman was finding it even harder to breathe than before and when she called to her, her mother barely responded. A few minutes later she died.
Coleen said that aside from the stroke, her mother suffered from hypertension and had a heart condition. After the stroke, she noted, her mother could not walk, sit or talk and needed to be fed.
“When I came here last week Thursday, I had a cough and fever and pain in the chest. Now I feel like myself, feeling okay now. The only thing now I’m grieving for my mom,” she said before adding that it was not easy seeing her mother die and she is trying her best to cope.
In addition, she stated that she is worried about her father, who also has underlying health conditions. Up to the time she spoke to Stabroek News, she said she didn’t know if he would be isolated at the hospital.
