“My grandmother was alone, she was scared,” said Fereira.
Just days after her diagnosis, she would die of the virus, wrapped in her daughter’s arms, on her way to the hospital.
‘Everyone is afraid’
Her family was on their annual trip to the west coast of Florida on July 6, but a week before the meeting Laurens began to feel unwell, Fereira said.
The illness started with stomach symptoms, but Laurens’ daughters soon noticed that she was very weak and made no sense, Fereira said.
Late Wednesday, July 1, her daughter took her to the Memorial Hospital in Pembroke Pines, Florida, Fereira said. Due to virus precautions, her aunt was unable to stay in the hospital with Laurens, who had underlying conditions such as diabetes and did not speak English.
In the early hours of Thursday morning, the hospital called the family to tell them that Laurens had been diagnosed with coronavirus, Fereira said. On that hospital phone call, Laurens yelled at her family that she was scared.
According to a medical document provided by Fereira, she was released around 3 am Thursday with instructions to pick up prescriptions and call her doctor for a two-day follow-up consultation. But her family had no way to contact her directly, because she didn’t have a cell phone with her, and it was 6 in the morning before the hospital told them they could pick her up, she said.
The hospital system said it was unable to comment on Laurens’ specific case, but that admission decisions are based on a number of factors and the physician’s evaluation.
That Thursday night, still feeling unwell, her daughter took her to another location at the Miramar Memorial Hospital, Fereira said. She was again diagnosed with Covid-19 and prescribed new medications for her symptoms, according to documents provided by Fereira.
Although hospital documents instructed him to schedule a follow-up visit around July 4, Fereira said the doctors’ offices were closed for vacation and that he had an appointment earlier that week.
But Laurens did not make it to that day, Fereira said.
Laurens’ daughters cared for her over the weekend. She had a bad day on Saturday, with fever, chills and body aches, but seemed to improve on Sunday, Fereira said. Then, on Sunday night until Monday morning, he developed chest pains, was having trouble breathing and sweated profusely, Fereira’s mother and aunt told him.
Fereira says she woke up Monday morning with a text message from her father at 2 a.m. saying that Laurens was being taken to the hospital in an ambulance with her daughters.
In her aunt’s arms, Fereira’s grandmother deflated in the ambulance, she said. An EMT looked, frozen, and his aunt told Fereira that he had to get him out of there.
“It just shows, everyone is scared,” he said.
Medical staff tried to revive her at the hospital, but she failed, Fereira said.
Fereira lives near the Pembroke hospital, where her grandmother was transferred in her last moments, and said she relives her death every day.
“I hear ambulances going to that hospital once every two hours,” he said. “To think about it, that my mother had to see my poor grandmother in an ambulance tied to life-saving devices … it’s so cool.”
And on the same days he hears ambulances bringing more patients to the state hospital with increasing cases, Fereira said he is frustrated seeing people without masks as if nothing were different.
A caregiver and a matriarch seeking better medical care.
On Wednesday, the family gathered in a small group for their funeral. Most had to join online because many of those who called Laurens mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, aunt and friend live in Colombia or Venezuela.
Wherever they are, they are all mourning for a matriarch, Fereira said. She always had the best advice and had a natural or emotional remedy for anyone who felt bad or bad, she said.
Fereira said that all the money she earned as a personal caregiver at the elderly home, she sent back to her sons and daughters facing the pandemic in Colombia and Venezuela, where she migrated in the early 2000s in hopes of a more comfortable and better life. health care, Fereira said.
“The worse it gets, the worse it is going to be in hospitals”
“I am very grateful for those people, but at the same time I feel that all medical services are so overwhelmed right now. Our medical professionals need some form of support,” he said.
The Memorial Healthcare System, which includes the Pembroke and Miramar locations where Laurens was treated, said in a statement that the hospital system is unable to comment on patient care due to HIPAA regulations.
“As a public health system, Memorial does not allow, nor have we allowed, the availability of beds to determine care decisions, a policy that we hope to continue despite the increase in COVID-19 cases. Admission to a hospital is a decision based on a doctor’s decision on many factors, including the patient’s vital signs and clinical presentation in the emergency room, “the hospital system said. “Statewide, approximately 20% of COVID-19 positive patients visit emergency rooms. Ultimately, state data shows that approximately 11% of people with COVID-19 are admitted to hospitals. “
Fereira hopes that the story will encourage people to take more steps to reduce the spread of the virus and support medical staff as restrictions increase and cases increase.
“The worse it gets, the worse it is going to be in hospitals, and things like this will continue to happen,” he said.
CNN’s Ben Norbitz contributed to this report.
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