STAY HOME, STAY SAFE
Warning to take virus seriously as cases soar
STAY home, stay safe. That’s the advice not just of public health experts but of those who have experienced the devastating effects of COVID-19 first hand.
As the third wave of the deadly contagious pandemic sweeps across the country, Dundalk woman Felicity Byrne has reached out from her bed in the Intensive Care Unit at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, where she is currently being treated for COVID-19, to warn people to take the disease seriously.
Felicity reveals that she had been very careful since March as she has Addison’s Disease but still contracted the disease. ‘I was going nowhere and then this hit me out of the blue on December 8.’
She has been in ICU since December 19 and admits that she was ‘never so terrified in my life’ as she had to use equipment to help her breathe. She is being treated for COVID-19 pneumonia and says that she has been told to be optimistic about her recovery.
‘ The staff are heroes to everyone here.’
Meanwhile the family of Dundalk grandmother Margaret Eaton who died from COVID-19 on December 3 have appealed to people to heed the public health guidelines.
Her daughter Anne Eaton pleads ‘Wear a mask, sanitise regularly and keep your distance. One chink in that long chain which can extend outside a bubble and beyond could kill someone in that chain. It killed my Mum.’
Their pleas come as the latest figures from Sunday show that Louth has the second highest 14 day incidence rate for COVID-19 in the country. There were 321 new cases confirmed on Sunday, giving a 14 day incidence rate of 941.16 per 100,000 of population. There have been 1,213 new cases in the county in the past 14 days.
This is putting huge pressure on health services, with approximately 40 staff at the Louth County Hospital off due to testing positive for COVID-19 or being close contacts.
THE daughter of a Dundalk woman who died from COVID-19 last year has appealed to people to heed public health advice. ‘It’s quite simple - Wear a mask, sanitise regularly and keep your distance,’ says Anne Eaton. ‘ One chink in that long chain which can extend outside a bubble and beyond could kill someone in that chain. It killed my Mum.’
‘October 25th last my Mum phoned me from her isolation room in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. She said ‘ Anne I’m feeling a lot better’. It was the last time I heard her voice.’
Margaret Eaton died, aged 77 years, at 6.08pm on Thursday December 3 2020.
‘Her death was needless,’ says Anne. ‘She definitely died before her time. She was a victim of Coronavirus. She had no underlying conditions and her medical team in Our Lady of Lourdes ICU felt she had walked in a strong woman and they should get her home. Age, we were told, was irrelevant.’
‘For a woman who loved life, 2020 and lockdown had been very hard on her. Ordinarily she had a wide circle of family and friends and had a great social life that would be the envy of anyone younger than her. She was a committee member of the St Gerard’s Senior Citizens Club. She travelled on international holidays every year as well as frequent visits to visit her grandkids down the country throughout the year. But COVID-19 put a stop to all this and she cocooned as necessary, relishing every phone or video call from her grandchildren and trying to adapt to a new normal without a hairdresser.’
Anne recalls that her much loved mother missed seeing her sister, Caroline and her family but luckily they came up to Dundalk on separate days in the summer, rather than staying for the weeks they normally did as they didn’t want to be bringing anything in to the house. ‘She couldn’t wait to see them!’
Another highlight for the family was that, as numbers went down and things opened up, Anne was lucky to win an overnight stay in Tankardstown House, Co Meath.
‘Mum came along and it was like a light switched on. For 24 hours she was out of hiding,’ she remembers. ‘She stood outside while we went in to her accommodation with wipes and disinfectant spray. No offence to the Tankardstown cleaning team but she wanted to be sure she was safe. She drank Prosecco and tasted caviar for the first time – sadly also the last time!.
‘A few weeks later despite having abided by every regulation and more regulations she imposed herself, COVID got into her small bubble of contacts – we don’t know how,’ says Anne.
Her mother was taken to hospital as a non emergency precautionary measure on Tuesday October 13 and by the next morning was confirmed COVID positive.
‘Initially Mum was doing ok and we were told that she would be home in days. However her oxygen deteriorated and she needed to be placed on oxygen support. Daily phone calls from mum stopped. From October 26th to 31st we heard nothing from her. On October 31 we were told she was going to the ICU.’
‘My heart sank as deep as it could go. The thought of Mum in ICU and ventilation was terrifying but in reality it was the best thing to happen to her. Within an hour, her consultant was on the phone explaining the ventilation process, and minutes after that Kevin, her nurse had her on a video call. He phoned us again that night to show us that she was comfortable. From that day we knew she was in the best hands possible, no matter what the outcome.’
Less than a week later they family were told their mother was in multi organ failure and it was agreed she would not be resuscitated if her heart stopped.
‘It was heartbreaking for us but to see medical teams totally at a loss how to support mum through COVID was also devastating,’ says Anne.
‘ Thankfully we were let in to see her, the first time we saw her in over three weeks. She had already been anointed. We had a 20 minute visit (it takes another 10 minutes to disrobe out of PPE and sanitise throughout etc. Any longer and the room has to be cleaned) As we went home we were told if she deteriorated and there was time they would video call us so we could be with her in some sense.’
‘ Then she fought back! Over a few days she improved long enough for tests to be done confirming there were no underlying conditions but that her lungs, as I was told, were ‘100% viral infection’ and ‘White with Covid’.’
The family began to hope that Margaret would recover from the dreadful illness which has robbed so many of their loved ones.
‘Very slowly sedation and ventilation was reduced,’ recalls Anne. ‘Video calls resumed and then the physio programmes started and the withdrawal of ventilation.’
She is full of praise for the care which the medical team gave to her Mum.
‘ This is where ICU really comes into its own – not only are they dealing with saving lives, they are also looking after the mental health of that person and her family. Her nurses would speak to us any time of the day. They asked for photos to put up around her room, they found out what radio stations and programmes she liked. We left in CDs. We said she always had a TV on ‘for company’ at home and so a TV was in the room and left on.’
The family were asked to bring in nice shower creams, gels, and moisturisers that Margaret had used at home and would no doubt prefer.
‘A keen knitter, we were thrilled to see that thanks to some volunteers, she had a crochet blanket on her bed and she would loop her fingers through the wool.’ This was later given to the family as a memory blanket.
They attended a family meeting and we were told that while their mother was still very ill, there was a strong possibility she would make it home eventually.
‘We got in to see her. She was sitting up and she was after doing her physio. Her speech therapy had started the day before and the nurse was excited as they got to hear Mum say ‘Hello!’ It was the last time we saw her conscious.’
‘Within 24 hours she was fighting a vicious secondary infection. Our last video call was on November 26th. She was back on ventilation and in light sedation. I spoke to her, told her to imagine she was at home having a sleep in her chair and she smiled.’
Her ICU team tried everything but sadly there were no options left, and the family were brought in as the palliative team took over and began to withdraw medication and reduce support.
‘While it was heartbreaking for us, it was also incredibly difficult for the medical team who cried with us and told us how they are trained to save lives not to have to switch off life support for a virus that if people would just follow guidelines would not be on the rise again.
‘My sister, Caroline and myself were there, each of us holding her hands and stroking her hair. Because she was no longer infectious we got to hold her hands without having to wear gloves, something that had really annoyed me the first time she was close to death, as I had wondered how she would know it was my hand in the glove.’
As they struggled to come to terms with the loss of their mother, Anne says: ‘In the days that followed there was a strange sort of grateful. Grateful we could hold her hands without gloves. Grateful that she wasn’t infectious when she died – she could be embalmed and have an open coffin. Grateful that we can have family at her funeral compared to the lockdown months, and again because she wasn’t infectious and it was out of the first lockdown, she could actually have a full funeral mass in the Church.’
A month’s Mind Mass was arranged although her family and friends will have view it on-line as they remember a vivacious mother, grandmother, aunt, friend and neighbour who should have had many more years to enjoy life.