The family of Elsa Simpson, a 76-year-old No. 1 Village, Corentyne woman who succumbed at the Infectious Disease Hospital at Liliendaal last Friday, is seeking answers from health authorities about her death and the treatment she received leading up to it.
Simpson’s eldest daughter, Annie Simpson, on Monday called for an investigation into the death of her mother, who was admitted to the Ocean View facility on November 24 after being transferred from the New Amsterdam Hospital with “suspected COVID.” She also questioned the care that her mother received at the facility.
Prior to Elsa being transferred to the Ocean View facility, her relatives had asked if they would have been allowed to take her home as they indicated that they would be able to care for her. They were told that they would not be able to do so and were forced to have her transferred to the facility instead.
“I am going to take legal action to find out exactly what happened to my mom,” Annie told reporters. “She had illnesses leading up to this ‘so-called’ COVID diagnosis, she wasn’t well, but everybody around her was vaccinated,” Simpson said before adding that her mother was unable to be inoculated due to some health issues at the time.
Simpson, who identified herself as a nurse who practices in New York, explained that relatives remain uncertain that the elder Simpson contracted COVID-19 and was actually treated for same. “We are not sure that she contracted COVID. Were [they] just saying that because of the shortness of breath, you know? Did they just say, ‘oh COVID, let’s go?’ They didn’t present a test to my sister or a piece of paper that said here’s this paper, your mom tested positive,” she pointed out.
Simpson related that after her mother was admitted at the facility, they were unable to talk to her for the first three or four days as she was out of it. She added that her mother’s condition improved and so they were able to send a phone for her so that she would be able to communicate with the family regularly.
“She would try to make calls to say how she was and she can’t really focus the camera on her face, but she can talk. We [could] hear her loudly and she would say ‘They tie my hand. They tie my hand.’ Why are you tying her hand? She’s not a pig. Don’t tie her hands because she’s trying to pull her mask off! Where are your nurses? Where is the compassion?” she questioned.
The grieving woman stated that her mother told her that she was “bondaged” as she was trying to take the oxygen mask off. At that time the daughter was told that her mother’s oxygen saturation level was at about 98%. She noted that workers at the facility explained to her that if she took the mask off her saturation level would drop. However, the woman questioned whether the healthcare professionals were trying to help her mother breathe on her own.
Citing the treatment that she received, her mother begged for self-discharge but that fell on deaf ears. When asked if her mother’s condition at the time would have allowed for her to be discharged, Simpson opined that it would have. Simpson indicated that “One of the last updates is that her saturation is fine, her blood sugar is okay, her blood pressure is okay but she’s not urinating. Automatically when someone is not urinating, you have a bladder infection. People are not dummies.”
On the day that they got the call that Elsa had died, her family had been making preparations to take care of her at home. Simpson stated that as part of the preparations, they procured oxygen to have at home if her mother needed it and she further noted that there were a number of medical professionals in the family who were ready to take care of her at home.
Simpson stated that the last call the family received was just around 5pm on December 10, when they were told that Elsa had passed away. “You’re calling us at 5pm? What happened to 7am? 6am? All day long. We knew something was wrong and we were frantically calling them and no answers. We got the call around 5 in the afternoon,” she said.
Further, Simpson said as the family receives more information, they may proceed with legal action to receive medical records to be able to ascertain the outcome right before her mother’s death.
