18/10/2021
By Professor Glen Mola
I wish to bring to the attention of the NCD communities some personal testimonies of COVID infection and vaccination which I believe everyone should know about - so as to make best choices for themselves and their families.
1. Last week the younger sister of a former prime minister of PNG died from severe COVID disease. She became ill with sore throat, fever and joint pains last month and started to treat herself with the assistance of a health care worker who has taken on board all the advice of Dr Sam Maima, i.e. steaming, azithromycin, ivermectin, lemon tea, ginger and frequent hot drinks ingestion and positive thinking. She became very short of breath about 10 days ago but refused to go to the hospital because of Dr Sam Maima's advice that oxygen therapy was not appropriate. So she resorted to more frequent steaming of her airways and continuation of the other therapies. Eventually on the day of her death she became semi-conscious and her relatives rushed her to PMGH emergency department where a COVID swab test was done on arrival (+ve result), but before any oxygen therapy could be organized for her she died.
2. Over the past 3 weeks the COVID positive patients with serious disease requiring hospital admission have increased from 4-7 inpatients to 46 in ward 3b (capacity 48), 17 (full house) in the COVID isolation ICU, 14 in the maternity wing COVID section, 30 in the St John COVID ward at the Aquatic Centre and overflow at the tent wards in the PMGH car park. This week (15.10.21) there have been 6-10 deaths per day in the general hospital and 1-2 per day in the maternity (MacGregor) wing. This week a married couple (aged 32 and 34 years) died from COVID complications in the COVID ICU, the wife died first on Sunday and the husband passed on Thursday - leaving a 6 year old child as an orphan. The wife used to be employed by South Pacific Lager beer company but left her job in August because of the policy of the company that all employees needed to be vaccinated and she did not want the vaccinated!! Meanwhile the doctors are discharging all the mild and moderate disease and improving patients home because there is literally no space for them to continue to be cared for in the hospital.
3. We have had 8 pregnant women (aged from 18 to 34 years) now die from severe COVID disease in the labor and post-natal wards of PMGH. This has results in a doubling of the maternal death rate for our hospital. Usually we have 12-16 maternal (pregnancy related deaths per year); this year there have been 18 deaths up to August.
4. I personally have watched two young women die from COVID complications in the PMGH labor ward over the past week. The visual effect of this tragedy is devastating. I am 50 years into medical Practice and not many illness scenarios challenge or frighten me anymore; but watching young people die from severe COVID disease had a very big impact on me. Now I understand how people die from the kind of respiratory failure produced by severe COVID disease. They literally die from labored breathing exhaustion; they just do not have the strength to take another breath.
5. All patients at PMGH who have required intubation and ventilation (because they reached the stage where they were no longer able to breath for themselves) have died; i.e. 100% mortality rate. BEST to avoid ever getting to the stage where you need oxygen therapy or ICU care - and therefore GET THE VACCINE ASAP
