by Amanda Virrey
Recently, a person who is very dear to me has just returned to the island after being isolated in Kalibo for testing positive for COVID-19. In his narration, it all started when he went to a hospital on the island for an inflammation that had built up from an infected wound in his leg. He was told that he had to take a Rapid Diagnostic Test, as a protocol in the hospital prior to any medical consultation.
Without further explanation from the medical personnel about the immediate isolation that he was going to be subjected to if he got positive results, he yielded to the Rapid Diagnostic Test and tested positive for COVID-19.
He felt that a Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) Test would be more accurate for his case, as his Positive Rapid Diagnostic Test result had a high cause from the infection in his blood, as he was not showing any viral symptoms in the first place. Nonetheless, he received emergency medical attention in the hospital and was prescribed IV antibiotics for his inflammation. He was also to be treated in the official isolation hospital in Kalibo.
Suddenly, the MAP officers were at his side, ready to escort him to an isolation facility. They presented him the option of checking into an accredited isolation resort on the island for three days to observe his condition. However, because of the lack of medical personnel and equipment in the resort, he was forced to yield to the orders of the MAP officers to put him in the ambulance of the island hospital and rush him to the isolation hospital in Kalibo so that he received proper isolation and medical attention.
Thus, after two hours of traveling and three hours of waiting inside the ambulance to receive medical attention from an available medical personnel, he was finally brought into the hospital, but only to the emergency room where he had to undergo an RT-PCR Test and a chest X-ay examination, he also had to wait for a couple more hours for a vacant bed.
Adding humor to his case was when he asked the ambulance staff for an official receipt of the PHP 1,500 ambulance fee that was charged to him, the staff, along with the island hospital personnel that my friend got to talk to on the phone tried to convince him to accept an informal acknowledgement receipt. In the end, they wrote off the ambulance fee as free because they could not provide an official receipt.
Eventually, he got admitted to a shared room in the Covid Wing and was administered with IV-antibiotics for his inflamed leg, which was the only root of his medical condition.
Thankfully, his condition got better in the next few days, though he found a few discrepancies during his admittance.
To be continued
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