Parents of 6-day-old COVID-19 infant test negative

Dec 04, 2020 News

– Plead with authorities to lay baby to rest

The West Demerara Hospital

Kaieteur News – The parents of a six-day-old infant, that the Ministry of Health (MOH) reported as Guyana’s 150th COVID-19 death, have tested negative for the virus.
This was revealed by the infant’s mother who spoke with this publication yesterday.
The grieving woman told Kaieteur News that she and her husband were asked to take a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) swab test following her child’s death, to confirm if they were carrying the virus. She claimed that since they were negative, her baby most likely contracted the virus at the hospital, adding that since his birth, she had scarce contact with him. She was only allowed to hold him once, on November 22, the night before his death.
According to the mother, the baby had to remain in an incubator due to health complications.
She was told that the hospital was awaiting the availability of a life support machine from the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation to use on the child but they were unable to get one because all were in use.
Additionally, she said that the nurses told her that the baby had ingested dirty water and he developed jaundice. “Every day was some different story, they even say he was vomiting up everything they feed him,” the woman complained.
She alleged that while her baby was in the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital, the nurses tending to him were not wearing any masks. Further, she highlighted that the poor state of the hospital’s washroom facility, led to her requesting to be discharged, as she deemed it unfit for someone who just had a C-section.
Despite being discharged, she would make visits to the hospital to see her baby but one morning, a hospital staffer contacted her saying that something is wrong and she should get there immediately. When she arrived at the hospital, it was revealed that her baby had died and PCR swab test had to be conducted which subsequently returned positive.
Since her son’s death, the woman has been questioning the hospital and the circumstances surrounding his death.
She also told Kaieteur News that she has been pleading with the hospital officials to lay her child to rest but has been met with steady excuses.
After requesting her child’s body for burial, the hospital told her that they would have to conduct a second test, which she said made no sense since the Health Ministry would have officially recorded his death as a COVID-19 fatality.
The second test was conducted on Wednesday and she was told that the results would be back by midnight, but despite that, when she inquired, she was told that the tests will take 24 to 48 hours.
“I also asked for my baby’s body so we can bury he but they say if the second test come back positive, they will have to cremate him,” she said.
Kaieteur News understands that it is mandated that when a person dies from COVID-19, they are cremated, but the mother is contending that even if that is the case, the steady delays and excuses from the hospital are hampering her child from being laid to rest.

Latest News