COVID-19 Claims Life of 6-Year-Old Arturo Godoy Jr.

Arturo Godoy Jr.

The first paediatric patient died due to COVID-19 over the weekend at the K.H.M.H.  He is six-year-old Arturo Godoy Junior of Orange Walk Town, who attended the Louisiana Government School and ailed from a kidney condition. The account by the father of his son’s final days is sad and painful.  The young child was alone at the K.H.M.H. when he passed; Arturo Senior was unable to see or communicate with his son after he was admitted to the K.H.M.H. and died within five days. The father was hopeful when he was told the child had been improving, but on Saturday, Arturo lost his battle and tragically died. Here is News Five’s Hipolito Novelo with a report.

Hipolito Novelo, Reporting

Six-year-old Arturo Godoy Junior is the first child to die due to COVID-19 complications in Belize. Arturo died at the K.H.M.H. on Saturday night after spending five days hospitalized. He tested positive on Tuesday when he was transported from the Northern Regional Hospital to the K.H.M.H.  His father, Arturo Godoy Senior, says that on Monday he rushed his son to the N.R.H. after his lower body begun to swell. He knew Arturo’s fight against a kidney disease continued…

Arturo Godoy Sr., Father of Deceased

“I rushed him over there because he was swelling. That is all why I took him over there.”

But doctors at the N.R.H. told the family that they won’t be able to help Arturo and so he was referred to the K.H.M.H.  He arrived at the K.H.M.H. on Tuesday where he was swabbed.

Arturo Godoy Sr.

“The doctor right here said that she doesn’t have the help and the medicine right here. That is why she talked over there to Belize so that they can take him over there.”

Hipolito Novelo

“Okay so he wasn’t swabbed at the N.R.H.?”

Arturo Godoy Sr.

Arturo Godoy Sr.

“They didn’t test him over here because the doctor says he didn’t have any symptoms of that. He didn’t have any fever, cough. He didn’t have anything. The reason she took him over there is because she wanted help. And she wanted medicine from over there.   Same Tuesday in the night when he reached, he was swabbed.”

Hipolito Novelo

“Were you told that he was going to be swabbed?”

Arturo Godoy Sr.

“Yes they told me that he was going to be swabbed. I totally agree because I know my baby doesn’t have anything. They went away. Two, three hours nobody came in.”

Arturo had been battling a kidney disease for the past two years. His entire lower body was swollen and he had trouble urinating. It was during a procedure to allow urination, that Godoy was informed that his six year old son was COVID-19 positive.

Arturo Godoy Sr.

“How he was so swollen, his part was swollen and he couldn’t piss. When the doctor came in the Wednesday, they told me that they would put something in his part so they tried to force it in to come in and this doctor just came in and cut his little thing. He was swollen. They cut it and they just push in the pipe in there. As they were putting the pipe, this doctor came in and told me, Mr. Godoy your son is positive. All the doctors went away and baby stayed like that, bleeding. All of this bleeding.”

After a few hours, it was decided that Arturo would be moved to the COVID unit and that meant that Godoy could not accompany his son, even though he wanted to.

Arturo Godoy Sr.

“In two, three hours they came to tell me that I need to move from here because we will be taking the baby to another isolation room. My baby is six year old. He cries for me. I cannot leave my baby right here. Well we can’t do much better, he told me. I told them; miss if my baby is positive, I am positive. And I am willing to go in there to mind him. If you could go, you will go with the others. You still cannot see him. But I want to be with him. That is all I wanted. I want to be with him. They told me you cannot do that. I told him, Miss I can’t leave my baby. They told me okay then, if you will put yourself like that I will have to call the security guard to take you out.”

Godoy was escorted out of the K.H.M.H.  He returned to their home in Orange Walk Town but not before leaving his son with a cell-phone for communication.

Arturo Godoy Sr.

“I just packed my stuff.  I told my baby, son I will leave you your phone. You call me. Okay daddy, I will call you. I left his phone, his charger. It was charged. I told him son, every day I will call you put you credit so you can see your cartoon, make you entertain yourself. I reach here in the morning, seven o’clock almost, his phone is off. His phone is off. When I called over there at the emergency I told them that I want to see about my son. They doctor talked to me and explained, Miss he got his phone over there. At least give him his phone. Okay, when I go in there I will see to give him his phone. Nothing. Why didn’t they want my baby to talk? Why?  Because they knew that my baby will tell me how they are treating him in there.”

Godoy says he would check up on his son on a daily basis and was constantly told that his son was doing better. In fact, he was even told that his son would be released and swabbed again in the next seven days or so. His hope for his son’s health increased.

Arturo Godoy Sr.

“When they called me they told me that my baby is good, we got the nurse in there that is seeing him and he is okay. Yes, sometimes he cries for you guys but he is okay.”

Hipolito Novelo

“Did any of them before he died, tell you Sir your son is not looking good, your son is doing bad, you need to come right away?”

Arturo Godoy Sr.

“They called me four o’clock. Mister Godoy, you baby is fine. We just want to take out the little more of liquid that he has in his body. Although he is positive, like that they told me, when we swab him again we will still send him home. We just want the liquid of his body to come out. That is all. I told them, Ma’am like when was that. He told me, I think like how he looking good, six  days, seven days we will swab him again and once everything is done we will take him home. Thank you, you give me the good news.”

But that good news turned to horrible news a couple of hours later.

Arturo Godoy Sr.

“Ten o’clock in the night they are calling me, my baby passed away. I told them, Ma’am how my baby passed away. He said that his little heart started to beat fast and they wanted to put the ventilator and blood started to come out. It came out from his eyes and nose and he passed away.”

He passed away in front of strangers, dozens of miles away from his family and his home- in an isolated room, in an unknown place.

Arturo Godoy Sr.

“If I was there, seeing my son, if he knew I was there I know my baby would still be up because he know I am there. If I wasn’t there but if somebody was there talking to him, cause he is a little baby. He would know that he is not by himself. If you leave a little baby in a room by himself, how do you think he would feel? If I put you in a room by yourself, three days, two days with no body to see you, how would you feel? That killed my baby, the pressure of nobody want me, nobody see me. I can’t call him. So that is what I say, I don’t know why they did that to my baby.”

But lingering above Arturo’s untimely death is the source of his infection. If doctors say he was COVID-19 positive, where and when was he infected?

Arturo Godoy Sr.

“How will he be positive? My family is big right here. Nobody has a cough, a fever,  or a flu. My mother in law is aged, my father in law too. They are right here. How they didn’t get?  Only my baby got it. Now I call them and they told me that I don’t want to see you here because you are positive because you are with your baby. If I was positive, why didn’t you want to let me in with my baby. Why?”

According to Godoy, health officials have yet to appear to swab the family. He says none of his family members are showing any signs or symptoms. Reporting for News Five, I am Hipolito Novelo.