Coronavirus: ‘She passed away on her own, we are hurting’

People whose mothers have died in nursing homes from Covid-19 in recent days, have spoken of the trauma of knowing their mothers died, separated from family and loved ones.

Thomas Gray’s mother Patricia passed away on Wednesday evening, having taken a test for Covid-19 on Monday. A positive test for the virus was then delivered on Thursday morning, a matter of hours after Patricia passed away.

Gráinne Fitzpatrick said her mother Doreen Corrigan died on Good Friday, even though the carers who looked after “were absolutely brilliant” and had previously given her mother a “wonderful quality of life”.

Speaking to Joe Duffy on RTÉ Radio One’s Liveline, Mr Gray said the hardest thing was that his mother had “died alone”.

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Skype funeral

Mr Gray spoke of having to deal with not being able to see her over the last couple of weeks and of the trauma of her diagnosis coming back after her death certificate had been written.

He said the nursing home had rightly locked down five weeks ago and “wouldn’t let in anybody to see anybody”.

“She passed away on her own, we are hurting, her whole family are” he said.

“They tried tackle it, and then we were told last week that two patients had suspected Covid-19 so they moved my Mam to another ward, hoping and praying”.

“She passed away on her own, that’s the saddest thing”. he said.

Ms Fitzpatrick said the nursing home where her mother lived had been “doing everything they could to keep their residents safe and to keep it under control” before they transferred Doreen to hospital.

On Wednesday, Ms Fitzpatrick who lives in Kerry attended her mother’s funeral service via Skype. She said the ceremony was “surreal” and “clinical” as the church pews were empty a few family members sat at the top of the church, 2m apart from each other in line with social distancing.