BACOLOD CITY: The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus (Mers-CoV) has claimed the life of a nurse from Negros Occidental working at the King Fahd Medical City in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Her death was confirmed by her husband in a telephone interview Wednesday. The husband, who refused to be named and disclose their residence, said the hospital director informed him that his wife died on Tuesday morning.
The Negrense nurse, 45, died due to renal failure with very low blood pressure which are symptoms of Mers-CoV.
Her husband said she underwent dialysis a day before she died and she also underwent a bypass operation earlier.
He said that he last spoke to his wife over the phone last April 30 when she informed him that she had pneumonia and was put in quarantine for Mers-CoV test.
After two days, he was informed that his wife was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit.
He also said that his wife could have been spared if she was able to go home in March. But because the hospital lacks personnel, she was not allowed to go home and her vacation was re-scheduled to last week of June.
“She was very excited to go home to attend to the graduation of our daughter who got an honor,” he added.She last went home in February 2013.
The husband said he was also told that her room at the hospital was disinfected and her personal belongings would be sent home.
His wife got infected of Mers-CoV by a fellow Filipina nurse she had taken cared of in the hospital. The said nurse is already recovering.
The husband said he and their 13-year-old daughter will no longer go to Saudi Arabia anymore to avoid possible contamination.
He said that he already gave authorization to a friend of his wife, also a Filipino nurse at the same hospital, to process all the claims of his wife and the return of her body to Negros.
The body of his wife will be frozen for two months before it will be brought back to the Philippines, he added.
“I was informed by our friend who is also a nurse that in Riyadh they don’t practice cremation or embalming of the dead. I was also informed that Mers-CoV victims are frozen for two months which is the incubation period for the virus to subside. I want my wife to be buried here,” the husband said. (PNA)