Two daughters grieve the death of their fathers who didn't get proper healthcare during COVID-19 pandemic

Rachelle Serrano-Ramos and Zyrene Baco are two different women who were handed the same fate in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Both of them lost their fathers, who perished after not getting the proper medical care and attention that they needed.

“I refuse for you to be remembered as a statistic. I never thought you will be a casualty of war, a battle we lost without a FIGHT,” Rachelle stated in a lengthy Facebook post narrating the sequence of events that followed her father's battle against COVID-19 symptoms.

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What baffled her the most was that her father didn't have a travel history to a COVID-stricken place. She also couldn't recall her father getting exposed to any COVID-19 positive patients.

What she was sure of was that her father abided by the community quarantine protocols and only visited the grocery twice before the enhanced community quarantine was imposed.

Rachelle wrote, “My Dad followed gov't quarantine rules and stayed inside the house for two weeks, prior to lockdown he visited the grocery twice.

"He doesn't have any history of travel or contact with known COVID positive.

"He started exhibiting mild symptoms last Monday (on and off fever). No cough or colds. We pushed him to go to the hospital but he refused every single time.

"He was scared and now I know why. Most likely you go to the hospital and not come out alive. This is the sad reality now.”

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She continued, “Friday, around 2:30am my youngest brother called me to say that we needed to bring Dad to the hospital as he was looking very pale and weak.

"He complained of not having an appetite. He never exhibited cough but for some reason he suddenly had difficulty of breathing.

“We called several private hospitals in QC only to be turned down and refused admission. Their reason: they can't accept possible covid19 patients anymore.”

She called out their local barangay for “not taking action” when her brother asked for help. “We had to get a private ambulance to transport him as my brother didn't know how to drive,” she wrote.

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Rachelle thanked the health workers from the Lung Center of the Philippines who assisted her father. “Bless Lung Center. They can only do so much. We can tell they are so overwhelmed, understaffed and tired just tired.

"There were so much death around.

“I never thought in less than 24 hours, my Dad will pass.

“He died without family beside him. Until now we are having a difficult time finding a funeral home to pull him out from the hospital and cremate his remains.”

A similar tragic case happened to Zyrene Boco, who lost her father recently due to several delays in getting medical attention.

She narrated on her Facebook: “I never thought that I'd have to see my own dad die right before my eyes.

"I hated that I couldn't do anything about it because he didn't die, he was killed by the system that prioritizes only the rich and powerful.”

She said her father woke up complaining of difficulty in breathing. He was rushed to the nearest hospital but it could not provide the healthcare he needed.

Zyrene spent the day looking for a hospital that would accept her father.

“All day and night we were calling hospitals because he needed intensive care but NO ONE WANTED TO ACCEPT HIM. They feared he suffered the infection of the virus but he did not show any symptoms prior to the day he was admitted.

She continued, “Many hospitals gave us false hope by saying an ICU was available and upon learning about the situation, would turn my dad down.

"They left my dad there to die. He died in a tent by the street with primary level care and we couldn't do anything about it. He was cremated a few hours later with no one by his side. He didn't even get a proper funeral.”

Their posts have garnered thousands of likes and shares on social media with netizens expressing their sympathy at the sudden unfortunate turn of events for the two women.

As of March 30, there are 1418 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Philippines with 42 recoveries and 71 deaths.