The five-month-old baby who died with COVID-19 last week had suffered a serious rib injury, relatives have disclosed.
Last Friday, the Ministry of Health said that a five-month-old baby girl from Region One who was infected with COVID-19 had succumbed to the virus.
According to the infant’s grandfather, Basil David, a few weeks ago, the mother left Moruca with her children to reside in Mahaica, separating from their father in the process.
A little over a week ago, the children’s father received a phone call from a woman who informed him that his estranged partner was planning to give away their three children. The woman told him that she was not in favour of the decision and asked him to travel to Georgetown to collect the children.
The father agreed and after collecting the children he returned home to Moruca. According to David, the baby was already unwell and her condition worsened as the hours progressed. However, they were unsure what was wrong with her as she only had a fever.
However, two days after her arrival back home, she developed flu-like symptoms and was taken to the Kumaka District Hospital where she was admitted and tested for COVID-19. Basil said that they noticed marks on the left side of the baby’s ribs when she was brought back home but thought nothing of it, and so at the hospital, they decided to question the doctor about it and were shocked to learn that she had a fractured rib.
“We don’t know how that happened to her…,” he said.
While at the hospital, the baby developed breathing problems and the COVID-19 test returned positive.
She was immediately transferred to the Infectious Disease Hospital at Liliendaal in Georgetown, where she was intubated. Less than 24 hours later, she died. The child died three days after she was admitted to the Kumaka hospital and one week after she was carried back to Moruca.
According to David, the rest of the family was tested for the virus but up to yesterday afternoon they had not received their results.
Since the virus was recorded in Guyana, this is the second baby to have died with COVID-19. The first was a six-day-old male of Region Three who died in November last year. The infant, who is the youngest COVID fatality to have been recorded so far, was diagnosed with aspiration pneumonitis shortly after his birth and it was only after his death that it was discovered that he was infected with the virus.
Three other persons under the age of 18 have also died. One was an 11-year-old girl, who was diagnosed with cancer who also died in 2020. The other two were teenagers – a 17-year-old who died in May of this year and a 16-year-old who died in July. They both had medical conditions.
