Grandmother died after hospital released her with COVID-19, family says

Diego Fereira’s family was supposed to be traveling to Florida’s west coast for a family gathering on Monday, the way they do every year. Instead, they’re trying to figure out how they’re supposed to bury their family matriarch during the time of the new coronavirus.

Fereira’s grandmother, Hortencia Laurens, 70, first went to the hospital on July 1, when she started feeling nauseous and having digestive problems, Fereira said. There, Memorial Healthcare staff at the Miramar location diagnosed her with COVID-19, and told her she would have to get health care at the Pembroke Pines location instead, but his family wasn’t sure why, Fereira said.

That’s where the nightmare began for Fereira’s beloved abuela and the daughter she lived with full time, Fereira said. Hospital staff at the Pembroke Pines location told Fereira’s aunt, Jiselt Marquez, that she would not be allowed inside the hospital with Laurens, who had diabetes and struggled with high blood pressure. Marquez would have to leave her mother there at the hospital alone, he said.

Laurens, who immigrated to the U.S. from Venezuela about 10 or 15 years ago, didn’t speak a word of English, Fereira said. Hospital staff did not provide her with a Spanish language interpreter, he said.

Fereira said hospital staff released his abuela about 3:45 a.m. Thursday, without a word to Fereira’s family. Laurens, who was still feeling weak and vulnerable, sat on a bench outside the hospital until 6 a.m., when the family was finally able to get someone from the hospital to verify she had been released hours earlier, Fereira said.

The family raced to the hospital and found her sitting there alone on the bench in front of the hospital, Fereira said.

“How do you do that to somebody that age — just kick her to the curb like that?” he said. “My grandmother, who doesn’t speak English, was denied the proper care and thrown out of the hospital in the middle of the night because she wasn’t able to communicate properly and didn’t know what was going on.”

A Memorial Healthcare System spokeswoman said the hospital could not comment on specific cases.

Laurens’ family picked her up and brought her home. The next day, Fereira said a representative from the hospital called his mother to make sure the family was able to pick her up and get her home safely.

Fereira said his aunt didn’t notify the family because she didn’t want them to worry unnecessarily. Laurens was very fragile and had been to the hospital multiple times before for her diabetes and high blood pressure, he said.

Over the weekend, her condition deteriorated, he said. By Sunday, she was having trouble breathing. The family called an ambulance, but it was too late. Laurens died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, about 2 a.m. Monday, Fereira said.

On Monday, he woke up to texts that his abuela had died. The family was stunned, mostly by how the hospital handled the situation, Fereira said.

“With the proper care, my grandmother could have fought and beat this virus,” Fereira said. “Due to negligence of this hospital staff, my grandmother lost her life. My family went from planning a vacation to planning my grandmother’s funeral because of this hospital’s negligence. There is no accountability.”

The Broward County medical examiner confirmed Laurens’ death was a result of COVID-19 with multiple underlying conditions.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel reviewed discharge forms provided by Fereira from Laurens’ hospital stay, which said she was admitted for dizziness, abdominal pain and vomiting. She was diagnosed with biliary colic, fever and chills, nausea and vomiting and COVID-19.

And she was discharged, despite “being a high risk patient with COVID-19 symptoms,” Fereira said.

“How does this happen in America, with someone just slipping through the cracks like that?” Fereira said Monday.

Memorial Healthcare chief medical officer Stanley Marks wrote in a statement that admission to the hospital is generally a physician-driven decision and only about 11% of people in Florida with the virus have been admitted to hospitals.

“We are actively extending capacity, in a safe, effective manner to respond to this pandemic. We have instituted tents outside the emergency departments of our hospitals to triage patients who have symptoms,” Marks wrote in the statement. “We are also decreasing elective procedures to increase available beds, redeploying some staff to high priority areas, contracting travel healthcare professionals, and converting spaces at our hospital facilities, to help meet the demand.”

The family had hoped that through the weekend, as she quarantined at home with Fereira’s aunt caring for her, Laurens would get a bit better and they would be able to bring her on their vacation to Cape Coral. But then she “kind of just stopped breathing” at home, Fereira said.

“I don’t want to see anybody else suffer like that,” Fereira said. “Somewhere down the line someone messed up and there’s no accountability. It’s unethical.”

Staff writer Karina Elwood contributed to this report.

Brooke Baitinger can be reached at: bbaitinger@sunsentinel.com, 954-422-0857 or Twitter: @bybbaitinger