Davao City — She was out for work on October 6 and after 10 hours, she started to cough and experience loose bowel movement though sporadic. On the 14th day she was diagnosed with dengue, the following day, she was diagnosed with amoebiasis, but on the 17th day, it was almost fatal, which prompted her to get on a swab test along with her daughter. The test result showed Katrina and her 26-year old daughter positive for Coronavirus, then the next day, their house-help followed.
The Covid-19 calendar days
Katrina is a government employee. She went to barangay 22-C on October 6 at around 9 o’clock in the morning to help distribute cash assistance, with over 30 residents around. There was social distancing imposed, people with face mask and face shields, while she was also equipped with face mask and face shield. But due to the scorching heat of the sun, she was sweating all over and the battery of her mobile phone was flat. She then went to the center of the building and GRABBED THE EXTENSION WIRE to have her phone electrically-charged. In between the activity, she kept wiping her face, and, that was it.
She went home with a colleague and was later fetched by her husband, after a while, her husband dropped by a convenience store then headed home.
On October 7, just after lunch, she felt some stomach cramps and started to cough; she took hot ‘salabat’ ginger suspecting it was just an ordinary cough. On October 8 she started to experience sporadic loose bowel movement but she continued taking loperamide. On October 12, she went to the office with a mint candy to ease her sore throat but was advised to go home for quarantine because of her exposure to a very risky barangay.
Her husband fetched her and on their way home, they stopped to buy groceries for the kids in preparation for the 14-quarantine. She started to isolate from other members of the family, but her daughter and husband stayed with her in the room with the house-help giving assistance only up to the doorstep with a face mask on.
On October 13, there was cough, mild fever and LBM, she went on self-medication back home and on the 17th of October, the couple went to their pigpens in the nearby village but immediately went home because she started to feel body pain and her eyelids started to turn red and it was painful as she narrated.
She started to feel weak, together with her sister-in-law who is a nurse, they went to a private doctor in Calinan and was told that she got dengue and her husband too. They were given medicines but without relief and they started feeling weaker. A government doctor over the phone told her the symptoms she manifested is not dengue. She stayed home with her husband and her daughter in one room. The same doctor told her to observe her body temperature and isolate herself from the rest of the family members.
On October 21, her grandmother sent home-cooked favorite ‘Dinuguan’ for dinner, then around midnight, she felt her stomach crumbed and started to vomit and this time the LBM became massive. They went to San Pedro Hospital but was denied admission. They proceeded to Davao Doctors Hospital where she was given medicines and was put on dextrose in a separate room (triage) since she has yet to be swabbed and was given first aid; was told she had amoebiasis and was discharged at 8 o’clock in the morning on October 22 and she was home enduring.
On the 23rd, they decided to get hospital confinement but needed to take a swab test, she went to One World Laboratory in Bangkal, Davao City, and had a swab test with her daughter, but the husband, who was in the car did not as well as the house-help. The house-help was tested later and the October 26 result showed her positive for Covid-19.
On October 24th at around 7 o’clock in the morning, the laboratory personnel called and informed that Katrina and her daughter were found positive for Covid-19. She voluntarily went to the RMC isolation facility because she did not want the community to be traumatized but was told, she cannot get in since they need to coordinate with health authorities, so she and her daughter headed with her husband driving the car.
At 6 o’clock in the evening, they called up Davao Doctors Hospital in Dumoy, which has been authorized to accept Covid-19 patients, but the hospital cited their policy that they need to pay a P40,000 deposit, and, that she will be charged P12,00 daily for the room. They negotiated to pay only P20,000 because that was the only money on hand and the bank was close, but she has a health card but the appeal was denied. Finally, at around 9 o’clock in the evening, an ambulance fetched her.
When the ambulance came, they took Katrina but not her daughter, because she was symptomatic while her daughter remained asymptomatic. the ambulance moved around the district and fetched four more Covid-19 patients including a 3-year-old toddler and her father.
Hospital condition and care
They arrived at the SPMC, a nursing staff questioned why she was there and would refuse to give assistance.
To this, Dr. Ricardo Audan, the OIC Chief of the hospital explained, “there was an Executive Order from the city but that time when the patient arrived, they have yet to receive the order which deals on proper coordination among agencies in the transport and transfer of Covid patients to ensure smooth hospital transfer and care.
The present number of ambulances is not enough to respond to all transport requests.
The EO is very good, Audan described, but when patients came in “there was no prior notice about them, we apologize for that, but we did not deny them entry, we took care of them, rest assured that we will address the attitude [issues] of our staff”.
There were about forty (40) more patients waiting to be seated in the holding facility of the Covid-19 isolation area where only a handful of the chair was in sight. People were talking as if they are not COVID patients — they did not wear a face mask, as if there was a reunion among friends, she described. Worse, given her LBM, she hardly endured because the toilet was only two portable toilets (portalet) which were filled up, murky, and smelly because it has been stocked and remained uncollected.
Medical frontliners inside the facility remain wanting, but according to Katrtina, PNP nurses and doctors were in tow.
She feels for the overworked personnel but given the magnitude of the pandemic, one has to endure.
Audan in an interview with Newsline.ph said, on Friday, fifty (50) inclined chairs have been delivered while the hospital’s two new female and two male toilets have been constructed to address the concern.
To address the transport problem, Audan said, the task Force has agreed to rent a public utility jeepney, to bring the patients to their respective facilities as soon as they have been disposed of from the holding area.
Katrina said, they waited for five hours for their chest x-ray and medical examination. They were hungry and everyone was unruly, but Audan said they already informed Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio that the management of Mamay Inn, an isolation facility, will allow that the government will put up a facility for x-ray and medication examination, to hasten the process and cut short the waiting period, “So, we are just waiting for the Mayor to act on this,” he added.
Katrina said, often they eat late because the food is always delayed, “How can we recover fast when we are always hungry?”. But Audan said they already referred the concern to the commissary.
Patients also complained that the medicine is not given on time.
The SPMC, Audan said is trying their best to address all the concerns, they apologized for the lapses.
Family Transmission
The city has been topping covid-19 cases recently, as health authorities observed that if a member of a household is infected outside their abode, the virus spreads like a wildfire inside the house, which observation applies to Katrina’s case. Her husband was found negative as he does not have co-morbidity issues and the vitamins which the family was taking had helped stabilize his immune system.
City Health Officer Dr. Josephine Villafuerte in an interview with Newsline.ph said, “High local transmission especially in the family, if one family member goes out and gets infected, the whole family’s health is compromised, it becomes a family transmission, kaya marami tayong cases in a household”.
She cited “Like when they go to the mall or restaurant with face masks, but hindi proper ang pagsuot, ang face shield ginagawang head band, things like that, at first magsocial distancing and later bale wala na”.
Does the virus easily transmits during a meal? Villafuerte agreed, “Yes, when they eat they started talking then they soon feel relaxed especially sa air-conditioned places, dapat kasi, kahit saan observe health protocol, if they do not have very urgent things to do outside the house, they should not get out”.
As of Saturday, October 31, Katrina and her daughter felt better in different isolation facilities while their house-help had been waiting for the ambulance for five days to come. But if Katrina be given an option, she would prefer the house-help to stay in their house, “She is better off back home, because she can drink Salabat, she can gargle with hot water and salt, and she can take her medicines on time, unlike here, we are at the mercy of the hospital personnel,” Katrina emphasized.
God willing, Katrina will be discharged next week
Asked what she learned out of her experience? She candidly answered, “make sure Alcohol is life when you go out, make sure to always sanitize yourself with alcohol, always wash your hands and never touch your face while in public places”.
She also wants her home renovated, “I want our house restructured with a shower room outside the house and everyone must take a hot shower and change clothes before entering the house, every gadget and items sanitized”.
“Covid is just waiting outside your door, please stay at home,” Katrina pleaded.
Publisher’s note: (Katrina is one of our correspondents. We are with her and her family in this trying time. Covid patients need love, care, and compassion from a distance)
