Governor Gwendolyn Garcia on Thursday said that they were really scared when doctors told them that their brothers – Marlon and Nelson Garcia, who had tested positive for COVID-19 – were being taken to the intensive care unit.
“We were told that they were transferred to an ICU with a nurse attending them. Since the phone was put on loud speaker, my brother Winston chimed in that the ICU is the most infectious environment in the hospital,” said Garcia.
“We were really scared because the ICU has the highest infection rate because multi-resistance bacteria can be found there. That is a fact that Winston’s doctor has emphasized as well as my auntie who is an anesthesiologist in America and my other (doctor) cousin,” said the governor.
The governor added that her brothers started having fever while in the ICU.
“Obviously, the secondary bacterial infection has set in and I was really, really scared because even if they were admitted on different days, they showed similar patterns. They then underwent dialysis and I was already frantic because I was seeing the same pattern,” the governor said.
Asked if they were going to take legal action against the hospital, Rep. Pablo John said: “It is too early in the day to talk about that. We have just buried our siblings.”
The Garcias said they will consult with medical experts to find out what really happened to their brothers.
The congressman said “we are raising questions, we are not making conclusions.”
“We are asking because our family did not prohibit any expense. We did everything necessary,” Rep. Pablo John said.
“We will ask experts to look at this and weigh in what we could have done differently. Would it have been more prudent not put them in a highly infectious environment, the most infectious environment which is the regular ICU,” the congressman added.
Rep. Pablo John said they wanted to know if bringing a COVID-19 patient to hospital is necessary all the time and why expensive procedure are still being done even if a patient is showing signs of improvement.
He added that there are available cheaper medications that are “proven effective in combating COVID-19.”
Rep. Pablo John said they are hoping that can be learned from their brothers’ deaths.
“So we only want to ask why. Their deaths were senseless but if their deaths were to have meaning so, maybe, we ask these questions and that we can learn from this. We ask these questions and we may save others from dying,” Rep. Pablo John said.
The governor broke down recalling the ordeal that she went through from the time that Marlon was admitted in a hospital last August 5.
“I had not one peaceful moment. I was nervous. I was even scared for myself and caused my immune system to go down. I cannot eat nor sleep. After one month that we believed in medical experts and this still happened,” the governor said.