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Bulawayo Bureau

THE family of Mr Ian Hyslop (79), a Bulawayo man who recently succumbed to Covid-19, has come out guns blazing, accusing his private doctors and Qalisa Retirement Village management of “utter carelessness and ignorance.”

Mr Hyslop, who became the 11th patient to test positive for Covid-19 in the country and the first in Bulawayo, was posthumously confirmed to have succumbed to the virus on April 4, making him the second person to die of the illness in the country.

He was a resident at Qalisa Retirement Village.

In a statement, the deceased’s daughter, Ms Sharon Fury, said they decided to talk about events that led to their father’s death “out of genuine concern for all Zimbabweans”.

She accused the doctors of negligence, including the chairperson of Qalisa Retirement Village, Ms Catherine Hewitt and her entire management whom she accused of ignoring her father’s plea to leave the village so that he could be attended by his own doctor.

“Out of genuine concern for all Zimbabweans, we wish to share the following account of our father’s untimely death in the hope we might just save one life,” said Ms Fury.

“Our father Ian Hyslop (79) was examined by his Bulawayo doctor on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 25, specifically as we felt he needed to see a doctor as he was suffering troubling flu symptoms.

“Thereafter, in the days leading up to his death on Saturday April 4, we believe he was examined by two local general practitioners with utter carelessness and ignorance.

“As a family, we cannot understand how two doctors, if not three, fully aware of the lockdown due to Covid-19, did not once consider him to be a typical case and hospitalise him on March 25 or at least March 31 when he clearly needed to be.

“As a result, there is no other way of describing them, but careless, ignorant and negligent medical practitioners.”

Ms Fury said Ms Hewitt and the entire management at Qalisa Retirement Village should take full responsibility for “illegally preventing” her father from leaving the complex to see his preferred doctor when the need arose during the lockdown period.

“We make this claim based on the fact that the chairwoman and management of Qalisa Retirement Village where our father resided with his 77-year-old partner decided he would not be permitted to leave the village even if he wanted to have his own doctor attend to him from March 26,” she said.

“This illogical decision was implemented by the village’s management, simply because he was over 70 years of age, in complete disregard of Statutory Instrument 83 of 2020 covering Covid-19 lockdown regulations.”

Ms Fury said the family was only informed that their father had the coronavirus late on April 7 since the sample was collected before a weekend as there was no transport to take it to Harare, where all laboratory tests were at the time being conducted.

She gave a detailed account of what transpired when her father visited Ganda Lodge in Hwange between March 14 and 16 and his visit to a doctor on March 25 after he experienced troublesome flu symptoms and eventually his death.

“Due to misinformation and incorrect dates reported concerning dad’s diagnosis and confirmation he had been infected with the Covid-19 disease, we feel it is vitally important to provide the accurate information,” said Ms Fury.

“Dad spent between March 14 and 16 at Ganda Lodge in Hwange, which is frequented by overseas tourists and the Ministry of Health (and Child Care) says there were no other guests at the lodge during the same period.

“On March 21, dad was visited by a friend who was from the United Kingdom and on March 25, my sister who resides in Bulawayo booked an appointment for dad to see his doctor in the afternoon after informing us he was suffering from troublesome flu symptoms (cough, sore throat and a slight temperature).”

Ms Fury said following his doctor’s appointment, her father told her sister, Glenda, that the doctor checked him and said he had a bit of bronchitis and that his throat was fine before he prescribed a bacterial antibiotic.

She said upon contacting Qalisa’s resident doctor to make an enquiry following his father’s admittance to Mater Dei Hospital, the doctor was “extremely rude” to her and only told her that he had a chest infection and was fine.

“She refused to provide any further information, despite the knowledge I was his daughter calling from Australia, saying it was a confidential matter,” said Ms Fury. “I asked how my dad got to Mater Dei, to which she told me emphatically that she didn’t have to disclose this to me, citing patient confidentiality.

“It’s shameful. We have lost the love of our lives. He didn’t deserve to be subjected to these tragic circumstances.”

Ms Hewitt said she could not comment.

“I have no comment and as Qalisa we have no comment. Thank you,” she said.

Bulawayo City Council health services director Dr Edwin Sibanda said the local rapid response team could not be blamed as most of the developments regarding the case occurred in a private residence and involved private doctors, without his team being informed.

“The most important thing is that all that management and everything that occurred was outside the health system and more so, it was their private practitioner right up to Mater Dei Hospital,” he said.

“It was only at that point that we were called in and I don’t think we had any role as council until we were invited during which time it was already too late.”

Dr Sibanda said the public response team only got involved through the collection of specimens on Friday before Mr Hyslop’s death the following day.

He said local health experts had since located some of the people who were in contact with Mr Hyslop prior to his death.

“We have done the index case tree and this has led us right up to Matabeleland North and other people from the city,” said Dr Sibanda. “This is where the man from the United Kingdom comes in and it seems he is the source of the infection. He is also linked to the second case.” Dr Sibanda said not everyone at Qalisa was now a suspect.

“We are looking at the list and the possible contacts and we are still following up,” he said.

“As the tests are coming in, we are evaluating them. We have tested the doctor who was attending to the patient, we have tested all three doctors and results have come back negative.”