Page 18 - November 2021 IB FINAL

Pacific Health Pacific Health

“IT LOOKS LIKE MALARIA, DENGUE,

PNEUMONIA AND ASTHMA ALL IN ONE”

By Scott Waide 10pm the night before. We spent a grueling two weeks in hos-
pital where both our parents were diagnosed with COVID-19.
Our mother, Patricia, sits on the bed in the small room she is
currently sharing with our dad, Peter. There’s an oxygen bottle The symptoms
at the bedside and she’s breathing through a tube. They had travelled in from Popondetta a month ago. Their
She was sleeping soundly for a few hours until the power health deteriorated rapidly in a space of a month. It was
went off. In a city so used to constant power outages, this is highly unusual. Initially, doctors said our dad tested positive
just one of many. But it is an added burden when you’re man- for typhoid and he was put on a course of antibiotics.
aging two COVID-19 patients in recovery. But his condition didn’t improve. He lost his appetite and
The room has become extremely hot and mum is now he was having bouts of extremely high fever.
stressed and struggling to breathe. My younger brother comes Our mum, meanwhile, didn’t eat at all for a week. She had
to help her out to the living room where it is a few degrees no fever. Although she was showing some shortness of breath.
cooler in the Port Moresby heat. But she refused to say that she was feeling unwell.
It’s a painful four-meter walk on two arthritic knees and It was confusing.
lungs not working at full capacity. I was passing through and my sister requested that I stay on
We continue to encourage her as we bring her to the nearest for the week just in case my presence would encourage them
chair. It’s a short distance she would normally have done in to become better. By the middle of the week, they were both
about 50 seconds. She desperately gasps for air as we bring coughing. It wasn’t much, but in their severely weakened
the oxygen bottle nearer to her and she takes deep breaths state, it became a concern. We made the decision to take
and calms down. them to hospital.
The heat is unbearable. My mum is 68 and dad, 72.
I take the lid of a large plastic container and begin fanning They’re fiercely independent and can be extremely stub-
her. It takes about an hour before the power comes back on. born sometimes. So it took some time to convince them to
We brought mum home after she was discharged at about go to the hospital and to really tell us how they were feeling

18 Islands Business, November 2021