Another Ilongga health worker abroad, this time in Ontario, Canada, succumbed to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) which she contracted in the facility that she was working in.
The 54-year-old Christine Bacalocos Mandegarian, who hailed from Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo, was a personal support worker for 31 years at Sienna Altamont Care Community nursing home in Scarborough, Ontario. She died on April 15, less than 24 hours after testing positive for the virus.
Her husband Parvez Mandegarian said that they brought Christine to Scarborough General Hospital Monday, April 13 because she was having some difficulty breathing.
“By Wednesday she was dead,” Parvez said. “It happened so fast.… I can’t really digest anything right now. I can’t even imagine that she’s gone.”
Parvez said that her wife had kidney problems and was on dialysis, so she had been working on and off for the last three years.
She was the first health worker in Toronto and second in the province of Ontario to die of COVID-19.
In a report by CP24.com, Services Employees International Union Healthcare (SEIU) President Sharleen Stewart said Mandegarian was exposed to the virus at her workplace where 79 residents and 21 staff members who have tested positive for COVID-19.
A total of 16 residents of the homecare facility have died of the virus.
Stewart said that proper personal protective equipment (PPE) was not used, and infection controls were not put in place, adding that the management misinformed them that workers were using N95 masks.
“Christine will be missed and remembered. We’re offering Christine’s family whatever support they need during this extremely difficult time,” SEIU said in a statement. (via cp24.com, cbc.ca)
