After a five-day wait, the relatives of a heart attack patient at the San Fernando General Hospital are now relieved that he can get the necessary treatment after his COVID-19 test result returned negative on Monday morning.
According to his daughter Chantal Mohammed, his result returned around 10 am and arrangments were being made to transfer him to the Cardiology unit.
"This would be the first time we're (going to be) seeing him since he left (for the hospital) on Wednesday night into Thursday morning," she told Guardian Media.
She hoped that no one else would have to endure what her family did because of the delayed COVID-19 test results.
"I definitely hope that people would be able to get back their results in a timely manner. In this case, my dad was given time. In other situations, they might not have been given time and that might have resulted in them losing their loved one waiting on a COVID test- a COVID test that may not have been necessary because someone isn't symptomatic," she said as she explained that her father was not symptomatic.
She, however, noted that she is understanding the swab was done to protect the healthcare workers but emphasised that the results needed to be returned "in a timely manner."
Asked if her family was concerned about any irreparable damage being done during the five-day wait, Mohammed said: "Definitely. One of the major problems too is that where he was being kept is a COVID query ward. It is filled with patients who have been swabbed for COVID. He may have gone in there uninfected and we don't know what would have happened."
"That is why now we're a little scared because he has been in there for five days... and he has now been transferred out of that COVID ward," she said.
Mohammed's father began experiencing symptoms of a heart attack on Wednesday evening and an ambulance was called around 2 am on Thursday. He arrived at the San Fernando General Hospital's accident and emergency department around 4.30 am and around 9.30 am on Thursday a COVID-19 test sample was taken while he was waiting in a viral tent.
Mohammed said they were told that 65 per cent of his heart was damaged and the remaining 35 per cent was very weak. They were told he needed to have an immediate angiogram and stent inserted which the hospital could not perform and it would need to be done privately. But he could not be released to seek the necessary treatment due to the pending COVID-19 test result. The option of private treatment was also ruled out on Sunday morning after her father experienced atrial fibrillation which made it too risky for him to be moved. He's expected to transfer to the cardiology unit where he would be stabilised following which the family would make a decision on his treatment.