DIPOLOG CITY – A 55-year-old suspected COVID 19 patient here committed suicide by jumping from the third-floor window of his isolation room at the Zamboanga del Norte Medical Center (ZNMC), becoming the first victim of the pandemic’s “emerging and more dangerous” mental health disorder.
Doctor Esmeralda A. Nadela, Provincial Health Officer and Chief of ZNMC, stated that the patient died at 3 a.m. on August 15 after jumping from his isolation room window while his watcher washed hands in the comfort room.
“Luoy na kaayo ang mga tawo aning COVID 19, wala man gud silay outlet kay dili na kaayo kagawas, then ang fear of being infected with the virus plus financial problem pa (The people are pitiful amid COVID 19, they have no outlet to let go of their problems because they cannot easily get out of their homes, then there is the fear of being infected with the virus plus financial problem),” Nadela stressed.
The victim, who was admitted to ZNMC on August 4, had a negative result in his RT PCR, but Nadela said he was “clinically COVID 19 (infected) as shown in his x-ray and laboratory results. And it is also for the reason that RT PCR has not 100 percent specificity.”
His attending physicians found severe lung illness of the patient as indicated by his x-rays, and he was given Remdesivir, a drug used among others to treat COVID 19 infection, for 10 days.
“He was supposed to be discharged tomorrow (August 16), but…,” Nadela revealed.
Nadela ordered repeat RT PCR for the patient on August 15.
Nadela said COVID 19 has brought heavy mental problems to the people, “and we only have two psychiatrists in the entire province, one is government employed in nearby Dapitan City while the other is a private practitioner.”
In Zamboanga Peninsula Region, only Zamboanga City and Zamboanga del Nortel have psychiatrists. In the meantime, the ZNMC administration has ordered to put railings on the 2nd and 3rd floors and have its windows reinforced with iron grills.-Gualberto Laput
