Relatives of Joseph Francis, 73, are demanding answers surrounding his death.
Alicia Williams, Francis’ daughter, said her father was taken from his Government House Road, Scarborough home to hospital on December 3 after falling ill.
She said he was sent with a referral letter from his doctor indicating that he was experiencing Upper Gastric Intestinal Bleeding (UGIB).
Speaking during a news conference yesterday alongside the First Wave Movement outside the COVID Treatment Unit at Fort King George, the man’s relatives said he deteriorated when he was admitted to the hospital and they were told that Francis had COVID-19.
His daughter said relatives were told to go home and quarantine.
A few days later, Williams said her father died while being moved to another facility to receive oxygen. She said family members want to know if he was ever treated for the UGIB.
“He died on the 17 (December), during that period of time they would have been calling us with deterioration updates and saying that he needed to have ventilation. I was making inroads to getting ventilation to come for my dad. The doctors dissuaded my brother. They said if he is in the hospital and his SPO2 levels (oxygen saturation), are so low if we take him out of the hospital he is going to die. But we left him in the hospital and he still died. I need to know why my father passed away because now that he passed away you are saying it’s severe COVID-19 pneumonia. What is that?”
Williams added when she asked for her father’s records she was told it would take some time.
Her father’s body remains at the mortuary.
She and her relatives contended that had Francis been treated for the UGIB he would have been alive today.
First Wave Movement spokesman Umar Abdullah called for the heads of Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh and Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.
Abdullah said proper healthcare equipment should be placed at facilities dealing with COVID and called on the government to provide proper treatment and care for all patients.
