[ad_1]
Lindy Washburn, a journalist specializing in health care, keeps abreast of the epidemic.
Michael V. Pettigano and Paul Wood Jr. and Lindy Washburn, North Jersey Record
Ocroimy Dolcin and his wife, Modeline Auguste, pose with the photo of their daughter, Dorcase Dolcin, one of at least ten people dead last month at the Wanaque Center for an adenovirus outbreak. Thursday, November 1, 2018(Photo: Kevin R. Wexler / NorthJersey.com)
The parents of a 4-year-old girl who, according to them, died in a viral epidemic that killed nine other severely weakened children in a Wanaque long-term care center, called for the closure of the center because they said that their daughter was neglected.
In an interview given Thursday night at their home in East Orange, the couple said that their daughter, Dorcase Ephraime Dolcin, was one of the first children to die during an epidemic of adenovirus at Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, which is now in its sixth year. the week.
More: Tenth child dies in an adenovirus epidemic at a pediatric care center in New Jersey
"It's negligent because they do not take full responsibility for what happened there," said Ocroimy Dolcin, the girl's father. "They are just making money, not taking care of the sick."
The mother of the girl, Modeline Auguste, added: "For me to be happy, the center must be closed."
Dorcase Dolcin is one of at least ten people who died at the Wanaque Nursing and Rehabilitation Center last month of an adenovirus outbreak. Dolcin died a few weeks after her fourth birthday. (Photo: Dolcase Dolcin family, used with permission.)
A representative from the Wanaque Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The state health department refused to identify the victims and not reveal their age, invoking the privacy of patients. The first child developed respiratory disease symptoms on September 26 in the center's pediatric ventilation unit. On October 9, the department was briefed on a "group of respiratory diseases" in the Wanaque center and set up a team to ensure that infection control procedures were followed.
Ten children have died so far, no later than Wednesday night. Eighteen more children were diagnosed with the disease, including one on Thursday.
More: A boy who has caught the disease from mouse droppings dies 9 months after diagnosis
Dolcin and Auguste spoke Thursday in an interview with NorthJersey.com and the USA Today New Jersey network in their East Orange apartment. A toddler's bed was barely used in the salon, near an intravenous infusion pole and near an unopened Fisher-Price play station.
The couple, an immigrant from Haiti, sometimes spoke in Creole with a family member who played. Auguste, who also spoke English, laughed when she showed photos of Dorcase over the years. Among the framed photos was a photo taken in September 2016 at a second birthday party for Dorcase at the Wanaque Center, with staff members surrounding his wheelchair.
Dorcase was so weak at birth in September 2014 that she spent the first three months of her life in the neonatal intensive care unit. She was brought home, but her parents soon discovered that she needed more care than they could provide.
Dorcase needed a ventilator to breathe and a tube in the stomach to be fed. She never said a word, but her mother said that Dorcase was sensitive to voices and would always laugh whenever someone called her by name.
She first stayed at a pediatric long-term care facility in Voorhees, an hour and a half drive from her parents' home, where four children were sick in another outbreak of adenovirus that was been reported this week.
More: The mother of a teenage girl deceased at the New Jersey Care Center has not been informed of the killer virus outbreak for weeks
Dorcase was transferred to the Wanaque Center in June 2016, a few months before her second birthday. It was a welcome relief for his parents, who could now visit him more often.
Auguste said that she was going to the center almost every other day. If her husband had left with the car, she would travel 23 km by taxi. "They would charge me a lot of money, but I did not care," she said. "It's my baby."
Modeline Auguste and her husband Ocroimy Dolcin are introduced while they talk about their daughter Dorcase Dolcin. Their daughter was one of at least 10 people who died at the Wanaque Nursing and Rehabilitation Center last month from an adenovirus outbreak. Dolcin died a few weeks after her fourth birthday. Thursday, November 1, 2018 (Photo: Kevin R. Wexler / NorthJersey.com)
But Auguste, a nursing assistant at a geriatric facility in Essex County, said that care in Wanaque was sometimes delinquent.
Auguste stated that he once found Dorcase wearing two layers, indicating that the staff was trying to hide his daughter's garbage rather than changing her diaper. Auguste stated that Dorcase had been hospitalized at least once more for respiratory problems.
More: Adenovirus: it's like the flu, but the vaccine is reserved for the military
The Wanaque center has been cited for its shortcomings in the past four years, including poor patient care and unsanitary practices that can lead to the spread of infection.
Despite his concerns, Auguste said that she had few other options for Dorcase. There are only three other long-term care facilities serving children in New Jersey.
Despite everything, Auguste said that she had tried to make the most of the situation. In September, she organized a party at the Dorchester Center to celebrate her fourth birthday. Dorcase was disguised as a princess with a silver and pink diadem.
Dorcase Ephraime Dolcin died Oct. 8, a victim of the adenovirus outbreak at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, her parents announced. Dorcase is photographed here at a party held in the center, in September, to celebrate her fourth birthday. She died a month later. (Photo courtesy of Modeline Auguste)
But less than a month later, on Friday, October 5, Auguste said that she had received a call from the center telling her that Dorcase had a 101-degree fever and that they were giving Motrin and Tylenol to try to reduce it. Later that day, Auguste learned that Dorcase's situation was aggravated. She was taken to the St. Joseph University Medical Center in Paterson.
By this Sunday, Dorcase's vital signs were in free fall. None of the treatments helped, Auguste said. "I asked his doctor if there was hope," Auguste said. "He said," No, she's going to go there. "
Dorcase died in St. Joseph's the next day, October 8.
Late the next day, October 9, officials from the Wanaque center contacted the Ministry of Health about the outbreak. The health commissioner, Dr. Shereef Elnahal, did not specify how many children had been sick or died at the time his department was called.
Auguste did not realize that other children were sick until she started seeing parents that she knew at St. Joseph's. She thinks her daughter was one of the first to die of the epidemic.
Elnahal said that it would be impossible to close the Wanaque center because of the lack of pediatric facilities in that state and the difficulty of moving several debilitated patients at the same time.
Auguste and her husband laugh at it. They said that they did not want to see another child fall ill or die.
For the Dorcase memorial, the couple chose a prayer in French to honor their daughter.
It reads in part:
She gave a brightly colored flower, beautiful and fresh, like the dawn of spring.
My soul was radiant, my happiness unequaled. Of all my flowers, she was the most glorious.
Follow Scott Fallon on Twitter: @NewsFallon
Read or share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/11/02/adenovirus-outbreak-parents-victim-wanaque-center-shut-down/1857285002/
Source link
