Grandchildren were everything
NOTHING gave Jocelyn Finlayson more joy than her grandchildren.
Those children lost their grandmother on Wednesday evening when the 62yearold Invercargill woman died in Dunedin Hospital’s intensive care unit after battling Covid19.
Her son Will and husband Denys were at her bedside.
Will Finlayson said having grandchildren was one of the biggest joys of his mother’s life.
‘‘She basically had a new lease on life when her first grandchild was born. She was always with them in the mornings and they would go out and about.
‘‘She went swimming for the first time in 40 years . . . She became a new person. She loved to show them off.’’
The family do not know how she contracted the virus.
Mr Finlayson, his parents, his partner — paralympic gold medallist Laura Thompson — and two children went into selfisolation before New Zealand entered a nationwide lockdown.
‘‘The last time that she left the house was on March 17. She went to the blood bank and went quickly to the supermarket to grab two or three things.
‘‘Honestly, we don’t have any idea how she got it.’’
Four of the six family members living in the house tested positive for Covid19, but they had different symptoms.
‘‘My father had very bad headaches and a cough; my mother started to feel tired, had lung issues and a cough; my partner had body aches and a cough.
‘‘And I had no symptoms. We all tested positive but had completely different experiences.’’
He said they did not know if the children had it.
‘‘I have to argue [with the Ministry of Health] to put them on the probable cases lists because for me it was quite obvious.
‘‘One of them had a fever months before [the outbreak] but we think they probably had it at some point.’’
Mrs Finlayson became unwell on March 28. She was tested on April 1 then returned home.
She was admitted to Southland Hospital on April 4, and was flown to Dunedin Hospital when she was put on a ventilator on April 6.
Mr Finlayson described the past few weeks as a ‘‘rollercoaster of emotion’’.
‘‘Basically we got told she was going to die about three times through this process and the next day she’d be OK and recovering,’’ he said.
‘‘We got progressively good news for the last three days. She was recovering — I think it was her 17th day on a ventilator.
‘‘It was such good news to the point that we were talking about rehabilitation and how she was going to handle living after that and what her requirements would be.’’
But her condition changed rapidly and the family received a call on Tuesday to say they could visit her ‘‘to say their goodbyes’’.
‘‘We [my father and I] were able to go up there and said our goodbyes. She passed away when we were there.’’
Southern District Health Board chief executive Chris Fleming said Mrs Finlayson has been in the ICU since April 7 and was in a critical but stable condition in recent days. Unfortunately, her condition deteriorated.
“While our patient was unable to have visitors over the past weeks, arrangements were made for her family to be with her . . . as she passed away.’’
The news came as another death and three new cases were announced during yesterday’s media briefing.
Directorgeneral of health Ashley Bloomfield said a man in his 70s from Christchurch's Rosewood Rest Home died in the rest home's hospital unit.
Eight other resthome residents have died at the home or in Burwood Hospital.
The man initially tested negative for the disease but was a probable case and included in the mortality statistics.
For the fifth straight day, there were no new cases in the Southern DHB area.