Samantha Jordan calls to be ‘cleared of COVID’

The 35-year-old mother who last Monday publicly complained of being forced into quarantine with her two-year-old son has been moved to another facility, Barbados TODAY can reveal.

But Samantha Jordan who also lamented that she was concerned about the disappearance of her and her son’s COVID-19 test samples, told Barbados TODAY that it is now almost 12 days since she has been held against her will, and is yet to receive word about what happened to the oral test samples.

Jordan said: “They lost the samples and he has never been admitted to the paediatric ward to get his treatment and never has any doctor or nurse come to follow up on how he is now feeling. They have looked past the fact that the child wasn’t breathing well and that I am an asthmatic, my older son is an asthmatic and the baby is asthmatic.

“It is like they are now assuming that we have COVID and even still if we have COVID then things should be put in place to keep monitoring patients who have COVID to make sure that they are getting better. So yes, I feel like we were just locked away and left.”

The mother of three said she was also alarmed at the fact that since in quarantine, no medical official came to check on her son regarding the breathing issue that led to her taking him to the Accident and Emergency Department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) on May 6. She said she was also surprised that no effort had been made to provide her with the necessities her two-year-old needs, including diapers and food supplies. She did say that her relatives have been assisting her however they can.

She accused the authorities of not inquiring about the well-being of her two underaged children she has been unable to care for because she is in quarantine.

Jordan said she is tired of demanding answers from the Ministry of Health and not getting any. She appealed to the powers that be to allow her to go home since she and her son are showing no symptoms that they have COVID. She also indicated that her toddler was now feeling way better than when she took him to the QEH Accident & Emergency Department where she said he received some form of treatment for asthma.

The young mother and health authorities came to a disagreement in the A&E when she informed them that instead of a PCR COVID test, she preferred for her and her son to have the oral swab. But Jordan said authorities told her that in order for her son to be sent to the pediatric ward for further treatment they must receive the COVID-19 test and that the PCR test was the only one available.

But Jordan resisted the health workers attempts to give her the PCR test and was sent to the Isolation Centre at Enmore where she said she did receive an oral test but was eventually told the samples could not be processed because the machine was not working.

She said that when she arrived at the first quarantine centre she was informed that the samples had disappeared and that she and her child would have to stay there for two weeks.

“They say the lab wasn’t testing oral results and then they came back and said the machine was not working and then when I got to the quarantine they said they can’t find my samples,” Jordan said. “I really don’t know what is going on. I am still waiting. Up to now, I wasn’t given a positive result for COVID; me nor baby.”

She told Barbados TODAY that while at the first quarantine facility she was again offered the PCR test but again she refused and asked to be transported to a polyclinic where she said she had been informed was offering the oral test.

That request was denied and she was instead transferred to a hotel to continue her quarantine, she said.

Jordan said: “The QEH carry these swabs and I understand that the polyclinics carry these swabs. So why was it so hard for the swabs to be sent down to the St Lucy District Hospital so that me and my son could be retested? Since in quarantine we haven’t gotten any temperature checks. No one came and checked the child’s breathing or his temperature of heartbeat.

“There were some days my two other kids couldn’t go to school because I am locked away and nobody cared to check on their well-being. Some people that I work with believe I have COVID and I feel like this has just left me with some real depression. Most days I am down, unhappy and I know that I have to go back to this place and there is now a stigma attached to my name that I have COVID.

‘ I know how people tend to act and treat you when they think you have COVID, some people even scorn you, don’t want to talk to you, they don’t even want to touch you. I need someone to intervene and look into the matter. Just come and clear me and baby’s name of this total madness.”

(anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb)