San Felipe Man Dies Before Being Diagnosed with COVID-19
Carlos Peralta
While Luis Romero died of the virus, there are questions over the death of a San Felipe man. The family of sixty three year-old Carlos Peralta is tonight trying to confirm if he died as a result of COVID-19 over the weekend. The Director of Health Services says that Peralta died at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital on Saturday night after being admitted with respiratory distress and the Buttonwood Bay Cardiology Centre says he was treated its private medical facility. The elderly man suffered a heart condition and when he was admitted to the private clinic in Orange Walk Town on Friday, there was no suspicion that he was COVID-19 positive until his test results came out on Sunday.
The La Inmaculada Parish in Orange Walk Town first informed members of the church of Peralta’s death via a notice in which it asked “those who attended mass on Wednesday and Sunday to please take the proper precautions (quarantine) since our decease brother participated in mass on Wednesday and a very close family member today (Sunday).” The Parish says that the priest will also be quarantined. The family is consulting a lawyer with the hopes to establish the time of events and cause of Peralta’s death. Today Doctor Marvin Manzanero told the News Five that COVID-19 may not have been the immediate cause of death.
Marvin Manzanero
Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services
“I haven’t seen the death certificate but we’ve been told that it has been linked to a cardiac condition. The COVID-19 test was run as a request to determine if there was any other condition that would have been a contributing factor. That’s why the diagnosed was made on Sunday when he died on Saturday in Belize City.”
Hipolito Novelo
“He is confirmed to be a COVID-19 positive patient?”
Dr. Marvin Manzanero
“As a patient, that might be a contributing factor, but that doesn’t seem to be the immediate cause of death.”
Hipolito Novelo
“How is it that it may not be COVID-19?”
Dr. Marvin Manzanero
“Well I could have a heart attack and be diagnosed with COVID-19. It does not mean that COVID-19 is the immediate cause of that. That is what that means. I have not seen the death certificate and what was placed but I am being told that it was a cardiac condition. I mean like diabetics, you are more likely to die of diabetes as an underlying condition and any other contributing factor but not the direct cause to it.”
Hipolito Novelo
“This is what is believed to have happened with Mister Peralta, that he was COVID-19 positive, but did not died due to COVID-19 related problems.”
Dr. Marvin Manzanero
“I am not so sure that that would be labelled as such. The problem is that he arrived already in respiratory distress so he died within eight hours.
Hipolito Novelo
“And after that he was diagnosed with COVID-19”
Dr. Marvin Manzanero
“Well he was swabbed upon arrival at Karl Heusner Memorial and the diagnosis was made just about the time I believe he had passed away.”
Hipolito Novelo
“But there is the possibility that his heart condition that he was diagnose since he was forty may have worsened because of COVID-19.”
Dr. Marvin Manzanero
“Yes there will always be a risk factor.”
