THE family of Ian Hyslop (79), a Bulawayo man who recently
died of Covid-19, has come out guns blazing, accusing doctors and Qalisa
Retirement Village management of “utter carelessness and ignorance.”
Hyslop who became the 11th patient to test positive for
Covid-19 in the country and the first in Bulawayo, was posthumously confirmed
to have succumbed to the virus on Tuesday last week, making him the second
person to die in the country.
He was a resident at Qalisa Retirement Village. In a
statement, the deceased’s daughter, Ms Sharon Fury said they decided to talk
about the events that led to their father’s death “out of genuine concern for
all Zimbabweans.”
She accused the doctors of negligence including the
chairperson of Qalisa Retirement Village, Ms Catherine Hewitt and her entire
management of ignoring their father’s plea to leave the village so that he
could be attended to by his own doctor.
“Out of genuine concern for all Zimbabweans, we wish to
share the following account of our father’s untimely death in the hope we might
just save one life. Our father Ian Hyslop (79) was examined by his Bulawayo
doctor on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 25, specifically as we felt he
needed to see a doctor as he was suffering troubling flu symptoms. Thereafter,
in the days leading up to his death on Saturday, April 4, we believe he was
examined by two local general practitioners with utter carelessness and
ignorance,” said Ms Fury.
“As a family, we cannot understand how two doctors, if not
three, fully aware the lockdown due to Covid-19, did not once consider him to
be a typical case and hospitalise him on March 25 or at least March 31 when he
clearly needed to be. As a result, there is no other way of describing them but
careless, ignorant and negligent medical practitioners.”
Qalisa residents have been placed under lockdown after the
death of fellow resident Ian Hyslop who died from coronavirus
She said Ms Hewitt and the entire management at Qalisa
Retirement Village must take full responsibility for “illegally preventing” the
deceased from leaving the complex to see his preferred doctor when the need
arose during the lockdown period.
“We make this claim based on the fact the chairwoman and
management of Qalisa Retirement Village where our father resided with his
77-year-old partner decided he would not be permitted to leave the village even
if he wanted to have his own doctor attend to him from March 26. This illogical
decision was implemented by the village’s management, simply because he was
over 70 years of age in complete disregard of Statutory Instrument 83 of 2020
covering Covid-19 lockdown regulations,” said Ms Fury.
She said the family was only informed that their father had
the coronavirus late on April 7 since the sample was collected before a weekend
as there was no transport to take it to Harare, where all laboratory tests were
at the time being conducted.
Ms Fury also gave a detailed account of what transpired
when her father visited Ganda Lodge in Hwange between March 14 and 16 and his
visit to a doctor on March 25 after he experienced troublesome flu symptoms and
his death.
“Due to misinformation and incorrect dates reported concerning
dad’s diagnosis and confirmation he had been infected with the Covid-19
disease, we feel it is vitally important to provide the accurate
information….Dad spent between March 14 and 16 at Ganda Lodge in Hwange, which
is frequented by overseas tourists and the Ministry of Health (and Child Care)
says there were no other guests at the lodge during the same period. On March
21, dad was visited by a friend who was from the United Kingdom and on March
25, my sister who resides in Bulawayo booked an appointment for dad to see his
doctor in the afternoon after informing us he was suffering from troublesome
flu symptoms (cough, sore throat and a slight temperature),” she said
Ms Fury said following his doctor’s appointment, the
now-deceased told her sister, Glenda that the doctor checked him and said he
had a bit of bronchitis and that his throat was fine before he prescribed a
bacterial antibiotic for him.
She said upon contacting Qalisa’s resident doctor to make
an enquiry following his father’s admittance to Mater Dei Hospital, the woman
was “extremely rude” to her and only told her that he had a chest infection and
was fine.
“She refused to provide any further information, despite
the knowledge I was his daughter calling from Australia, saying it was a
confidential matter. I asked how my dad got to Mater Dei, to which she told me
emphatically that she didn’t have to disclose them to me, citing patient
confidentiality,” she said.
“It’s shameful. We have lost the love of our lives. He
didn’t deserve to be subjected to these tragic circumstances.”
Ms Hewitt declined to comment on the issue.
“I have no comment and as Qalisa we have no comment. Thank
you,” she said before she hung up her phone.
Bulawayo City Council health services director Dr Edwin
Sibanda said the local rapid response team cannot be blamed as most of the
developments regarding the case occurred in a private residence.
“The most important thing is that all that management and
everything that occurred was outside the health system and more so, it was
their private practitioner right up to Mater Dei Hospital. It was only at that
point that we were called in and I don’t think we had any role as council until
we were invited during which it was already too late,” he said.
Dr Sibanda said they only got involved through the
collection of specimens on Friday before Hyslop’s death the following day.
He said local health experts have since located some of the
people who got in contact with the deceased prior to his death.
“We have done the index case tree and this had led us to
right up to Matabeleland North and other people from the city. This is where
the man from the United Kingdom comes in and it seems he is the source of the
infection. He is also linked to the second case,” said Dr Sibanda.
He however, said not everyone at Qalisa was now a suspect.
“We are looking at the list and the possible contacts and
we are still following up. As the tests are coming in, we are evaluating them.
We have tested the doctor who was attending to the patients, we have tested all
three doctors and results have come back negative.” Chronicle
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