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A son who lost his parents to Covid-19 this week described the loss of his family to the virus as “devastating” and urged people to be vigilant to protect each other from the virus.
Owen and Bredge Ward of Strabane in Co Tyrone, died 12 hours apart at Altnagelvin Hospital in Co Derry on Monday.
His son Martin described his parents as “inseparable.”
The couple were married for 48 years and met when they were 17.
They had six children and nine grandchildren, with a tenth on the way, whom they never met.
They were both 68 when they died.
Speaking to RTÉ News, Mr. Ward said that the death of his parents had been “a complete shock to everyone, it is just surreal.”
Mr. Ward worked as a nurse in the intensive care unit at Galway University Hospital during the first wave of Covid-19.
“We did what we had to do, we took care of people, but you don’t think it’s going to happen to you,” Ward said.
Ward said his parents were very cautious and rarely left their home, yet he believes that high levels of the virus in the Tyrone and Derry community left them vulnerable.
Owen and Bredge Ward were admitted to Altnagelvin Hospital after contracting the virus.
Each of them showed signs that their conditions were improving, before they deteriorated again.
Martin Ward was in Galway when he received a call from the hospital at 6.30am on Monday to say that his mother had died.
As she struggled to process the news, she said she began preparing to travel north for her mother’s funeral.
But 15 minutes before he left, he received another phone call from the hospital to tell him that “his father’s condition had collapsed” and that “he may not live for the next two hours.”
“It’s almost as if my father gave up then, because of course it is the nature of the disease, yes, but also, [he and my mother] they were inseparable, “Ward said.
As a working nurse, Mr. Ward said he was allowed into Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry to hold his father’s hand for the last half hour of his life.
“I watched the monitor as her heart rate dropped, her blood pressure dropped, her oxygen saturations dropped,” he said.[I went] from having two perfectly healthy people, to having two parents who were killed by Covid. Covid killed them. “
Ward is urging people on both sides of the border to be extremely careful to protect their loved ones from Covid-19.
“Be very, very careful, keep in mind this can happen to anyone, and it’s devastating when it hits,” Ward said.
“My message is to treat everyone … as if they were your family, where you take the utmost precautions to keep them safe.”
Earlier today 2,945 candles were lit at Knock Basilica during a special mass to remember those who died with Covid-19 on the island of Ireland.
Each candle represented a life lost to the virus at the time mass was celebrated at noon today.
The death toll on the island is now 2,956, after one more death in the south and ten more deaths recorded today in Northern Ireland.
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