Granny’s hotel quarantine horror
A 60-YEAR-OLD grandmother says she was left writhing on the floor in pain for 90 minutes because of a lack of basic first aid treatment at the Hobart Airport Travelodge quarantine hotel.
Vanessa, who did not wish to have her last name published, suffered an intense muscle spasm which left her unable to get up off the floor.
The Moonah resident lay there screaming in pain for about 10 minutes, attracting the attention of quarantine guards who called an ambulance.
The guards periodically called through the door to ask if she was still OK, but were otherwise unable to provide any medical assistance.
Vanessa said she could not understand why the facility was not equipped to handle basic medical emergencies.
“Who in their right mind would’ve ever guessed that we are running a hotel quarantine system that does not have a nurse or a health officer on staff?” she said.
“If proper first aid was available a lot of these indignities wouldn’t have happened.”
Labor MP Ella Haddad put those questions to the government on behalf of Vanessa.
Ms Haddad said the quarantine staff were not to blame and the government should have provided the health resources she needed.
“There’s something very wrong with the government’s systems for someone to be so unwell, but not provided any first-aid assistance,” she said.
“The state government are the ones running the hotel quarantine systems, and they’ve had 18 months to get this right.”
When the ambulance arrived Vanessa was rushed to hospital, given emergency treatment and told she would need to return to the hotel to finish her 14th day of quarantine. Vanessa said she felt terrified to return to quarantine, fearing nobody would come to her aid if she suffered another spasm. When back in quarantine she suffered adverse reactions to the codeine she had been administered, including vomiting and hallucinations.
A government spokesperson said they had measures in place to treat cases of non-coronavirus-related illnesses in hotel quarantine.
“All licensed security guards must have first aid certificates and there are processes in place to support people who become unwell in hotel quarantine,” the spokesperson said.
“Anyone in quarantine who needs access to medical care not directly related to coronavirus symptoms is encouraged to contact HealthDirect on 1800 022 222 or triple-0.”