COVID fear sparks bedsore trauma
Published:Thursday | November 19, 2020 | 12:18 AMCarl Gilchrist/Gleaner Writer
Despite an apology and a suggestion that a patient be returned to the St Ann’s Bay Regional Hospital for proper care, a traumatised family is unmoved after a woman believed to have been inflicted with COVID-19 was allegedly neglected, causing her to develop bedsores.
Eloise Jackson is crying foul, accusing the hospital of not providing proper care for her mom, who was admitted to the facility for almost a month.
According to Jackson, during her mother’s October 12 to November 3 stay, her mother developed bedsores after being neglected, with one nurse complaining that she was too “heavy” to properly care for.
“Nobody wants to look after her because she’s heavy,” Jackson told The Gleaner on Tuesday.
Bedsores may develop on areas of the skin that are under pressure from lying in bed over a prolonged period. Shifting a person every couple of hours helps to prevents this.
That is not the only grouse Jackson has with the hospital.
She said that after admission, her mother had to spend a week on the COVID-19 ward before being administered a test for the illness caused by the deadly coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
Jackson said that her mom was suspected of having the illness as she was having difficulty breathing at times. This, she said, was due to her suffering from diabetes and the lingering effects of pneumonia.
Jackson said the experience has left her and her mom traumatised.
“I don’t know if anything can replace the trauma,” she said. “I am a Christian, and it is my Christian faith that is carrying me through.”
When the matter was brought to the attention of hospital CEO Delroy Morgan, Jackson said he apologised and asked that her mother be returned to the medical facility so that she could be administered proper care.
FAITH SHATTERED
However, she made it clear that her mother does not want to return to that hospital under any circumstance and neither does she.
Jackson said that she has had to hire a practical nurse to care for her mother at home, costing more than $15,000 per week.
“We’re handling it. We’re doing an internal investigation,” Morgan told The Gleaner when contacted.
“The administrator, the senior medical officer (SMO), and senior nurses met to discuss and investigate the matter to see if there’s any gap in our service delivery, and if there is, it will be dealt with,” he added.
“We’ve been in constant dialogue [with Jackson], and I apologised to her. Her complaint has not fallen on deaf ears. We are not dismissing anything she said because the care of her mother is paramount,” Morgan said.
With the family’s refusal to return the patient to the hospital, a medical team headed by SMO Dr Tanya Hamilton-Johnson rushed to the woman’s house on Tuesday to administer care and offer whatever other assistance they could.
Efforts to get a comment from Hamilton-Johnson were unsuccessful.