Cavite nursing home running out of supply

HELP NEEDED A nursing home in Indang town, Cavite province, seeks help for food and basic supplies, after donations and outreach programs are stopped due to the Luzon lockdown. CLIFFORD NUÑEZ

INDANG, Cavite, Philippines — A pall of gloom descended last week on Balay Alima, a calm and quiet nook for the abandoned elderly in this town.

The nursing home, also called the San Jose Balay Alima Foundation, lost a resident, a 78-year-old woman who suffered from diabetes, its first in the midst of the virus outbreak.

Her death was unlikely due to the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), said Rosemarie Galea, who runs the foundation, since the patient never had fever or cough, the most common symptoms of the viral disease.

Yet the woman had long been a “candidate,” a term they use for the terminally ill or the very old, with both her legs black and sore up until her death.

As the virus continues to rage, putting at the highest risk the sick and old, every single one of them at the facility may well be considered a “candidate.”

“We wanted to take her to a hospital for amputation but we’re too scared of catching the virus [and effectively infecting the rest of the residents],” Galea, 63, said.

Dilemma

Cases of infection are low in this part of Cavite, compared with the bigger clusters in the cities, yet hospitals are similarly swamped with COVID-19 patients.

“We’ve also heard that hospitals these days won’t entertain patients unless [cases are] related to COVID-19,” she said.

The facility takes care of 23 elderly, the oldest a 98-year-old with dementia. Most of them were found wandering on the streets that social workers had to second guess their age.

“There’s one here who says her name is Gretchen Barretto so we call her that. When they die, we use ‘San Jose’ as their last names,” Galea said.

Seeking hospital attention is a dilemma that Galea faces these days.

Another is their thinning supply of food, adult diapers, hand gloves, bath soap and household bleach.

“We consume an average of one sack of rice a week,” Galea said behind the rolls of tissue paper she wrapped around her mouth since they already ran out of face masks, too.

Since the lockdown, regular donors and outreach programs have stopped. Galea’s business of selling food supplements for a living was also disrupted by the quarantine.

Last week, she sought help from a local priest, who found a way to raise a sack of rice for them.

She said they hoped to get food donations from the barangay of Carasuchi for their viand next week.

Nursing facilities are taking no chances that Galea said they immediately shut the doors of the 26-year-old elderly home since the outbreak.

“I also worry … I myself couldn’t go out because I’m afraid of becoming a carrier and bringing [the virus] here,” Galea said.