Mount Pearl Senior High teacher with COVID-19 left to wait for care in hospital parking lot

A Mount Pearl couple say their daughter's experience seeking treatment for her COVID-19 symptoms reveals weak links within the province's health system.

Elizabeth Noseworthy said her daughter, Erin, waited over three hours in a St. John's hospital parking lot before getting a medical assessment.

"Three and a half hours sitting in a car, in the winter, with COVID-19, unable to keep your eyes open, busting to use the bathroom with no options only sit there and wait is not acceptable," said Elizabeth Noseworthy.

"Our premier says that they're prepared for COVID and for incoming cases. I think the ball is being dropped."

Noseworthy said Erin,a teacher at Mount Pearl Senior High considered ground zero of the recent B117 variant outbreak in the metro region was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Feb. 16when she got a phone call from public health.

The person on the phone told Erin that someone would follow up with her every five days, and gave her a phone number to call if she had any other questions or concerns.

"From the 16th to this day, no one has contacted her from public health. To this day, no one has called her back," Noseworthy said.

"She did have concerns about her health. Given that she has underlying medical health issues and she is immunocompromised, some concerns did arise."

After not being able to reach anyone with public health, Noseworthy said,her daughter called 811, and a clerk directed her to the Health Sciences Centre.

She registered with the emergency department over the phone from the parking lot, but she wasn't admitted until more than three hours later.

"I really don't feel this is acceptable," Noseworthy said."I don't fault the emergency department; what I fault is the setup of the system that is not prepared for people like her coming in for treatment.She doesn't need to go on a ventilator, but she needed assistance."

Her daughter believes she would have waited longer, had she not called local politicians, pleading for help. When she was eventually seen, doctors diagnosed her with pneumonia, and she was sent home to rest.

Hospital overrun with COVID patients

Eastern Health told CBC News in an emailed statement that the Health Sciences Centre wrestled with high volumes of COVID-19 patients on Tuesday.

"As these patients must isolate away from other patients in the waiting room and there were times when all negative pressure rooms were in use or being cleaned, there were instances where some patients were asked to wait in their vehicles," the statement said.

"All patients were triaged and seen appropriately based on the severity of their condition. It is critically important that COVID-19 positive patients do not expose other vulnerable patients, staff and physicians while they are awaiting treatment.Patients who were asked to wait in their vehicles were provided a telephone number to call if their condition changed or worsened."

Noseworthy, a former nurse, says someone should have been sent to check her daughter's vitals. Had they done so, she likely would have been prioritized, she said.

"If you could see how sick our daughter is and wasn't admitted into hospital, you would have to wonder, how darn sick do you have to be to be in there?" she said.

The ordeal was all the evidence the Noseworthys needed to decide Newfoundland and Labrador's hospitals aren't prepared to handle an influx of COVID-19 patients.

"I hope no one else has to have such a stressful day as we had, just not getting care that they need," Noseworthy said.

"It was a long, long day, probably the most traumatic day that I've had in my life."

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