A family that suffered a coronavirus outbreak after visiting a loved one who was dying in hospital has questioned whether NPHET used their experience as a warning.
At last night’s COVID-19 briefing, Dr Ray Walley from the National GP Liaison Committee warned of an increase in family-based transmission and used one particular family as an example of what can happen.
“I am aware of one family who visited who visited a family member who was dying in hospital from COVID and all of the family have developed COVID as a result,” he said.
On Lunchtime Live this afternoon, listener Matt said his family has just been through the exact same experience.
He was “stunned” to hear it used as a warning.
“I am part of a small family that did catch it because of visiting a loved one in a COVID ward,” he said.
“I just wanted to find out, are we the only family? Or how many families are there that have been allowed up to a ward and how many families have caught the COVID because of visiting a loved one in hospital?
“Are we the only family? Are there several families? How many families are there? They are saying there is one family and I am aware that my family caught it from visiting our loved one in hospital that died in hospital.”
Warning
He said he was shocked to hear his experience held up as a warning to others.
“I was a bit stunned,” he said. “I just keep thinking, is it us? Is it us that they are talking about?”
He said the family was allowed into the COVID ward twice a day for about five days before his loved one passed away.
“I didn’t give it a second thought,” he said. “No-one gave it a second thought because obviously we wanted to see our loved one and to know that we were there for our loved one.
“So, we didn’t give it a second thought. As scary as it is, if anybody has ever been in the same position as us, you wouldn’t give it a second thought.”
PPE
He said there were “so many problems” with the way the hospital conducted the visit – noting that the family was only shown how to put on the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) once.
“We were shown once how to do it and then every other time it was do it yourself,” he said.
“Is that fair? Is that why we caught the COVID? Because we were told to do the PPE ourselves after the first time?
“Every time we went up to that hospital to visit, there should have been someone there to fit us with the PPE. To make sure that the mask is on right; to make sure the goggles were on right.”
Coronavirus
He said most of the family has now over the virus, although there are one or two who caught it later and are still recovering.
Through it all, he said the hardest thing was being unable to comfort his partner at their loved one’s funeral because she had the virus.
“It was heart-breaking,” he said. “I hope no-one else is ever in that situation. It was very bad.
“We are still trying to get over it. We are still all new to it. It is raw. I am upset now talking about it because I just felt sorry for my partner that no-one could hug her or do anything because she had COVID at her loved one’s funeral.”
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