04/22/2020 - 12:54
- Clarín.com
- Society
The images of the nursing home in Belgrano R still hurt. The abandonment towards older adults was such that SAME had to rescue them from there, where at least 19 coronavirus-infected were detected. The situation is not much better in Parque Avellaneda, where it was reported that one person died and eight others tested positive for COVID-19 in a nursing home. In addition, since the weekend they do not have medical follow-up, so the PAMI decided to transfer the 45 patients to other healthcare centers.
This is the San Lucas Geriatric Institute, located on Medina Street at 1650, in that Buenos Aires neighborhood. According to their relatives, the authorities informed them in the early hours of this Wednesday through a WhatsApp message of the situation and asked them to take the patients home.
"We are demanding that they do the tests. The grandparents are alone with two nurses who do what they can," claimed a woman at the geriatric door, and hinted that the informal messages from the authorities were given as a result of what happened in Belgrano. .
The evacuation of the grandparents in Belgrano. Photo: Fernando de la Orden
" It is not known how the contagion began . Since March 18 we have not entered relatives and they do not leave. Ergo, somehow, the virus entered. They say that there is a nurse who came five days with fever taking paracetamol and she is one of positive cases, "he added. In addition, he said that the complaint was filed on Saturday by neighbors when they saw that transfers were being made.
Those movements were later clarified by Eduardo Pérez, the PAMI medical coordinator who was present after noon and resolved to vacate the nursing home on Wednesday. "In the first case," he declared, "eight PAMI affiliates were isolated. Of these, seven tested positive and one is pending."
Then, he explained that the decision to remove the 45 patients from San Lucas was made because the agreement had not been followed. "The conditions of security and medical monitoring are not guaranteed. There is no medical professional in the care of the members, since Saturday no one has come to continue the monitoring, " he insisted.
On the risk of other infections that this can cause, meanwhile, he emphasized that "the benefit outweighs the risk" and that "having been living in this place does not mean that they have coronaviruses", without specifying whether they are tested by COVID- 19 to those asymptomatic.
According to Luis, the son of the 90-year-old woman who lived in the nursing home and died early Monday morning, the positive was known on Saturday and his mother was hospitalized. In addition, he denounced that in the death certificate they indicated "respiratory arrest and severe pneumonia" and not coronavirus. "I had it fixed and since Monday I am advising you of all this. It is not a flu," he stressed.
The rest of the relatives present in the place indicated two claims: one towards the asylum and the other towards the PAMI. "Here you have to do the tests. If they say they have enough reagents, they are not 100 people, there are 50 among the staff and the resident grandparents, that they do not come with protocols. And the other complaint is to the authorities, not to the girls that work, but to the owners so that they report accordingly, "he explained.
"They have to move them or make an isolation accordingly," asked another man. While a woman explained: "My mom has Alzheimer's and I have gotten tired of calling all the numbers in the City and I had no answer. My mom shares the room with two others and they are not testing."
According to what they said, the medical director would be "in quarantine" and they specified that they received "on Tuesday at 11 at night on WhatsApp a message saying that there was a deceased, 7 infected and 3 awaiting the results." This Wednesday it was revealed that there were already eight infected.
The San Lucas Geriatric Institute is private and depends on the City of Buenos Aires. As a result of what happened, federal judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral has already intervened.
A year ago, in the same nursing home, a 70-year-old woman died from burns in a tragic fire.
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