Worse outcomes for chronic disease patients infected with COVID-19 –Internal Medicine Specialist, Grace Waldron-White confirms

Nov 21, 2021 News

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Frontline Health Worker of the Week…

“The COVID-19 pandemic has added to the distress since persons with hypertension, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases (chronic diseases) have worse outcomes should they become infected with COVID-19.” 

By Sharmain Grainger

Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was dealing with chronic diseases which account for over 70 percent of global deaths, with more people dying from these each year than all other health conditions combined.

This is the observation of Internal Medicine Specialist at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), Dr. Grace Waldron-White, who intimated during a recent interview that “sadly, 80 percent of these deaths occur in developing countries like ours.”
With the onset of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, the role of chronic care health personnel such as Dr. Waldron-White became that much harder. According to the Internal Medicine Specialist, “the COVID-19 pandemic has added to the distress since persons with hypertension, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases (chronic diseases) have worse outcomes should they become infected with COVID-19.”
Dr. Waldron-White has been working in the Internal Medicine Clinic at the GPHC for the past three years. Internal Medicine, she explained, is the field of Medicine that deals with the application of scientific data to the prevention, treatment and follow-up care of a wide variety of adult diseases and health concerns, both acute and chronic, especially those that are complex and involve multi-organ defects.
PURSUING A DREAM
Convinced that she was always destined to work in the medical field, Dr. Waldron-White recalled that “I dreamt of being a doctor since childhood.” Her upbringing was at Blygezight, Greater Georgetown. She is the youngest of five children born to Derrick Waldron (a retired Assistant Post Master General who passed away in July of this year, three months shy of his 95th birthday), and his wife, Avis Waldron (a retired headmistress who now resides in Canada).
She attended the St. Gabriel’s Primary School, the Bishops’ High School and Queen’s College after which she decided to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor at the University of Guyana’s School of Medicine. “My Residency training in Internal Medicine was done here (Guyana)…my fellowship training in Internal Medicine was at the McMaster University in Canada,” she shared.

According to Dr. Waldron-White, who was inspired to pursue this area of specialty because of the knowledge and empathy demonstrated by her professors and mentors, “my area of greatest focus is chronic non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and their complications.”
In the Internal Medicine Clinic at the GPHC, Dr. Waldron-White disclosed that “we see an average of about 80 patients per day and almost the entire clinic population suffers from one or more chronic diseases.” Given the impact of chronic diseases, Dr. Waldron-White noted that “it is important for us therefore, to be very militant in educating and emphasising measures for our patients to protect themselves and their households from COVID-19. It is also important for us to seek ways to make it as easy as possible for patients to access their medications during this pandemic so that they do not have to be unduly exposed to the public.”
Added to this, Dr. Waldron-White and her colleagues work towards ensuring that patients’ disease conditions are well controlled “thus reducing the risk of them decompensating and ending up at the emergency room which is already overburdened due to the pandemic.”
SHEER SATISFACTION
Since it was first detected here in March 2020, more than 37,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19. But while the majority patients have recovered, Dr. Waldron-White noted that “we also see at our clinic those who were infected and are now living with the long-term effects of the COVID-19 infection.”
More than 900 people have succumbed in our homeland due to COVID-19 complications, including friends and relatives of Dr. Waldron-White. Nevertheless, she continues to diligently do her part in the delivery of health care. In fact, she shared, “the sheer satisfaction of helping to lighten someone’s load and brighten someone’s day is what makes me show up every day, as well as my passion to make my contribution toward providing a better standard of care for our people living with chronic diseases.”
Dr. Waldron-White is fully aware that team effort is especially crucial if the desired results are to be achieved. As such she extended “much kudos to those colleagues who were or are at the front of the frontlines.

They are the emblem of dedication.”
Hopeful that the efforts of those within the medical fraternity are not in vain, Dr. Waldron-White, who is fully vaccinated, has also been advocating for wider vaccine uptake. According to her, the COVID-19 vaccine is simply “another layer in the armory against the coronavirus.” As such, she noted that “people with chronic diseases should not see their disease as a barrier to receiving the vaccine but rather as a reason for being vaccinated.”
Dr. Waldron-White, who adheres to precautions such as hand-washing and sanitising often and properly, the wearing of facemask and social distancing as much as possible, also encourages those around her to do the same. Because of the contagious nature of COVID-19, she revealed too that, “my family and I have also not been going out as much as before.”
“My dear husband, Kenneth White (a pastor and accountant), and my darling daughter, Monita (who just completed CSEC and is now attending the University of Guyana), they are the ones who keep me grounded, laughing, hopeful and believing in myself,” Dr. Waldron-White shared.
According to her, the pandemic has amplified the need to always “be careful, be kind and trust God…it has reminded me of the fragility of life, that God is the only sure foundation and that family and friends are more important than all the other enticements of life.”
As such she takes pride in being involved in church activities, especially organising programmes and events aimed at enriching the lives of members of the community. Additionally, she enjoys travelling, and most of all “just spending time with my family.”

 

 

 

 

 

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