A traumatised family on Thursday rushed to bury their 74-year-old grandmother, hours after COVID-19 claimed her as a victim from a home for the elderly in Fgura.
The woman died, without family by her side, at midnight on Thursday after being discharged from Mater Dei Hospital into the care of Residenza San Ġużepp despite testing positive for the virus, her granddaughter Joslyn Spiteri said.
She was one of three elderly people to die that day. As of Saturday morning, Malta’s virus death toll stands at 30, placing the death rate as the third highest in the EU per 100,000 people.
Her heartbroken granddaughter spoke to Times of Malta after a 15-minute burial, during which the 10 family members allowed to attend were still trying to come to terms with the news.
“No one deserves to die like this”
“Her body was wrapped in Stretch & Seal and closed in a bag in the coffin, which was covered in Stretch & Seal too, while the undertakers were covered in protective gear,” Spiteri said.
“All funerals are depressing, but this has got to be the worst. No one deserves to die like this – not even a dog would be treated this way. We were afraid to hug each other.”
Jane, whose family asked for her surname to be kept anonymous, was among 113 of 278 residents of the Fgura home to test positive.
She had previously tested negative but was sent to hospital to be treated for low blood pressure and was found to have COVID-19.
Several days later, she was discharged back to the home, her family say, “with COVID-19 and unimproved breathing conditions”.
The family said that they had repeatedly tried and failed to find out information from the home about her state of health with phones going unanswered, staff changing during a handover or doctors unavailable.
On Monday, a doctor told them her health had deteriorated and it worsened further on Wednesday. The family was told she could not be sent to hospital at that stage because she could have died en route due to the distance from the home.
Spiteri had not seen her grandmother in two months. With two children under two and a job to hold down, the 24-year-old had to pass on a 10-minute appointment behind Perspex at the home on the Sunday before she was hospitalised.
“My grandmother may have had dementia, was bedridden and suffered from asthma, but she had managed to live with this condition all her life, and it is COVID-19 that killed her – not any underlying conditions,” she said.
“I cannot stand this – not for my grandmother and not for anyone else. She died of COVID-19. The elderly are not just numbers.
“She was taken from us and we could have continued to visit her. This death is unjust because measures could have been taken.”
Spiteri said she had received no response to her complaints about the “disaster” at the home, which has been criticised by relatives since the outbreak almost three weeks ago.
“There is too much chaos in the country and our elderly are suffering. Had measures been taken outside, we could have avoided the spread in homes.”
The management of Residenza San Ġużepp have previously said steps have been taken to try to reduce the outbreak and that seven doctors are on-site, monitoring the situation.