Heartbreaking death of Covid-19 nurse
Nurse Anncha Kepkey’s grieving husband tells YOU about her final days and the future the virus stole from her
HE’LL never forget their 30th wedding anniversary. William George Kepkey and his wife, Anncha, were as madly in love as the day they met and while they initially had big plans to celebrate their pearl anniversary, they decided to put those on hold for a year.
“It was a quiet affair, just the two of us,” William recalls of their special day in October last year.
“She worked that day and afterwards she had a swim. She said we must do a bigger thing next year because at the time we had financial constraints.”
Little did they know it would be their last anniversary together. Just seven months later, Anncha (52) would die of
Covid-19 – just as she was set to become a grandmother for the first time.
It’s been a week since she was laid to rest at Durbanville Memorial Park in Cape Town and William (56) struggles to talk about his beloved wife without breaking down.
“She was so scared of contracting the virus that she carried a bottle of sanitiser with her everywhere she went,” he says.
“Bottles were placed all over the house. She was so careful.” But Anncha worked in a high-risk environment: she was an assistant manager of nursing in trauma and emergency services at Tygerberg Hospital and became the third nurse at the hospital to die of the virus.
Late last month, the hospital confirmed 105 of its healthcare workers had tested positive.
The government needs to do more to protect those at the frontline of the pandemic, a heartbroken William says.
“Not enough is being done,” he says.
SUNDAY 26 April was the first weekend in a while that Anncha was on duty. Her responsibilities included working in the Covid Tent, the temporary field hospital set up at Tygerberg Hospital. The next day, a colleague she worked with started displaying symptoms of the virus and was booked off.
On Monday 4 May William noticed Anncha wasn’t looking well when he fetched her from work. “She was blood-red in the face. I asked her if it was because she’d been walking but she said no. She’d been tested for the virus because she was showing symptoms.”
Anncha had been having aches for a while but thought it was the result of a nasty fall when she slipped at home.
“That night she seemed fine and we slept in the same bed. But the following
night I could hear she was breathing more heavily than usual and had night sweats.”
On Wednesday night their youngest son, Angeo (23), bought KFC and while it was a family favourite, Anncha didn’t touch her food. “I saw her sitting there looking very worried. But because she’s a nurse, we trusted she knew what she was doing,” William says. “We should’ve taken her to the hospital sooner.”
Her condition deteriorated and William rushed her to Melomed hospital in Bellville during the night after she started experiencing shortness of breath.
Anncha, who also suffered from high blood pressure, was admitted to intensive care and put on oxygen.
The next day the news came that Anncha had tested positive for Covid-19. William and Angeo immediately went to Mediclinic Louis Leipoldt to be tested but their results were negative.
Then while grocery shopping, William got a call from a friend offering condolences. A rumour was going around social media that a nurse from Tygerberg had died. His friend assumed it was Anncha.
“When I got home, I called Anncha but she didn’t answer.”
William phoned the hospital and was put through to Anncha – and it’s difficult to describe the relief that washed over him when she answered, he says. “I burst into tears. She told me, ‘I’m going to live for a long time’.”
In the days that followed, friends and family rallied to pray for Anncha. “It felt like a wall of warriors wrapping around us,” William says. But Anncha’s condition continued to worsen and a week after being admitted to hospital she was put on a ventilator. Doctors warned William her condition was unstable and he should prepare for the worst.
On Wednesday 20 May, William woke in the early hours after he had a strange experience. “Anncha had this habit of nudging me with her elbow whenever she walked past me,” he says. “In the early hours of that morning I felt a nudge in my right side. I looked at the clock. It was 4.15am. I couldn’t go back to sleep so I got up to watch TV, waiting till 9 to phone the hospital.
“When I felt that nudge, I reached out to her empty space in the bed and said, ‘Don’t worry, my dear, today you’re coming off the ventilator. Sometimes I regret saying those words.” At 7.30 a nurse called. “She said, ‘Mr Kepkey, your angel is no longer with us. She’s now with our Heavenly Father.’ My whole world came crashing down. I now had to tell my sons their mother was gone.”
Anncha’s body was immediately wrapped in plastic and the family weren’t allowed to see her. The last time William saw his wife was on 6 May.
At the funeral, attended by only 32 family members and friends, pallbearers were required to wear a new set of gloves each time the coffin was moved.
It was a day of unbearable sadness, William says.
ANNCHA had worked at Tygerberg Hospital for more than 30 years and was the epitome of “a real nurse”, her husband says. “I could see the passion in her eyes. She loved her job and we learnt to live with it. She worked 12-hour shifts and sometimes up to six days a week.”
William, who’d worked for chemicals company AECI, was retrenched many years ago so Anncha became the breadwinner.
He’s lost faith in the government and their promises of protecting healthcare workers, William says. “They just talk at their nice press conferences. It means nothing to me. My wife is gone. She’s given her life for this profession.
“It’s difficult finding closure when I think of all the dreams she had.”
Anncha and William had plans to buy a seaside cottage where they’d live after she retired and they’d soon welcome their first grandchild. Their eldest son, Chadley (29), and his wife, Dominita (30), are expecting a baby boy any day now.
“We started talking about winding down because she wanted to spend lots of time with her grandchild,” William says.
“She bought so much clothing for that boy. She was excited to be a grandmother.”
The boys were dear to their mom, William says. Both Angeo and Chadley are qualified IT specialists, something Anncha was especially proud of.
“Two weeks before she got sick, she came past me and said, ‘You know what, you’ve broadened these two boys’ horizons so much. Thank you for that. We must do the same for our grandchild’.”
Now she’ll never meet the precious little boy she was looking so forward to. And William, his sons and the nursing profession will have to cope without a woman who gave her life to others.
‘My wife is gone. She’s given her life for this profession’