–GPHC refutes husband’s claims that Lethem schoolteacher contracted COVID-19 while warded there

THE Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) is refuting claims that Lethem schoolteacher, Donna Greaves, Guyana’s latest COVID-19 victim, may have contracted the virus while being warded there; but her husband begs to differ.

Franklin Greaves is holding fast to his belief that all evidence is leading him to conclude otherwise, as his wife was subject to a total of three tests for COVID-19, the first two of which were done on June 26, the day before she was admitted to the GPHC, and returned negative results. The third test, however, was done last Monday, June 29, while she was at the hospital and that was when the result proved positive.

“She took two COVID-19 tests in Lethem, according to her doctors; one swabbing and one rapid test,” the grieving husband said, adding: “The rapid test, they got a faster result, which was negative. But with the swabbing, they had to wait for Georgetown to release that. But the first swabbing came out negative.”

Greaves said that had his wife contracted the virus in Lethem, then the authorities there would need to explain how her previous two tests gave negative results. The 25-year-old schoolteacher, who resided at Culvert City, Lethem, died last Saturday, becoming the country’s 15th COVID-19 victim.

He said it was also on Monday that his wife’s condition started to rapidly deteriorate, and she became unconscious. The mother of one would subsequently die without regaining consciousness.

“I’m not claiming that she didn’t die from COVID-19, but I want to get it clear that she went to the hospital for another ailment that she was suffering from for months,” Franklin Greaves said. “We know that she was exposed to the COVID-19, but it’s how she got exposed to it,” he wanted to know.

Donna Greaves was admitted to the Lethem Regional Hospital on June 25, and was transferred to the GPHC on June 27. Franklin said it was also not until after she was admitted to the GPHC that she developed new symptoms, which included a sore throat.

According to Franklin, his wife had been ill for some time now, and had first begun visiting the Lethem Hospital a few weeks before she was admitted. He said the doctors there had explained that the symptoms she was exhibiting had to do with her having a low blood count.

“She keep suffering from back pain and other joint pain for months, so we keep treating it with muscle rubs, and normal painkillers,” Franklin said. “They claimed that she was suffering from anaemia, but they don’t know the causes of the anaemia; they just know that she had a blood shortage,” he noted.

Franklin said it was because his wife’s symptoms included shortness of breath that she was tested for the virus in Lethem. And it was only because the results of the first two tests came back negative that she was even taken out of isolation at the GPHC and placed with other patients. But after she began to develop new symptoms while at the GPHC, it was decided that a third COVID-19 test be administered “as a precaution”. And this was done last Monday, June 29.

KEPT MOVING HER AROUND

“They kept moving her around,” Franklin said, adding: “They had her in COVID isolation; then they had her in regular ICU.
And then they rushed her back into COVID ICU; so they had a confusion at the hospital. They had to shut down ICU, because they said they made a mistake to put her there. They had to trace back the ward and isolate doctors that were in contact with her after that test came back positive.”

After the third test returned positive, Franklin said, the authorities began contact- tracing persons who had been in close proximity with his wife. And this is what led him to further question how or where his wife might have picked up the virus.

According to him, several hospital staff, family members and other persons who were in contact with Donna prior to her being admitted to the GPHC tested negative, while he was made to understand that four persons with whom she’d been in contact at the GPHC tested positive for the virus, including a medical staff.

“When she was medivaced from Lethem,” he said, “she was even on the flight with another female patient that fly out. They separated at ‘Emergency’ when the other person went to the maternity ward. The other patient that fly with her is negative and discharged already.”
Franklin said two of his wife’s sisters, her parents and their housekeeper were tested and cleared as not having the virus. He himself, he said, has not been tested so far, but is in quarantine, and plans to get tested at the end of his two-week isolation.

Franklin took to social media last Sunday and posted a video querying how is it that his wife may have picked up the virus, and alleging that the infection took place while she was at the GPHC.

GPHC Communications Manager, Chelauna Providence subsequently released a statement challenging those claims.

“The GPHC notes and wishes to refute claims that Donna Greaves contracted COVID-19 while being a patient at our institution. While our commitment to medical confidentiality restricts us from sharing details of Ms. Greaves’ clinical records, we maintain that these claims are furthest from the facts, and wish to state in a definitive manner that Donna Greaves did not contract COVID-19 at the GPHC,” Providence said in the statement, adding:

“We strongly condemn the proclivity to cast blame on our hardworking and dedicated doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers. The Corporation continues to practise strict protocols and quality-control measures to eliminate transmission and maintain a safe space for our staff, patients and visitors.”