The Tribune

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

RELATIVES of Nurse Marsha McQueen have denied social media claims that she died shortly after receiving the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

On Tuesday, local website Bahamas Press posted the claims along with a photo of Nurse McQueen, alleging she died of a heart attack and was a recipient of the vaccine. The website also posted the story on its social media pages.

While trying to cope with her sister’s sudden passing, Maude Smith decided to put an end to the circulating rumours of her sister’s death.

She said: “Based on everything that we know, she has not taken the vaccine shot,” she said. “She did not have the vaccine. Nothing like that. We don’t know if she had a heart attack like they say, but as it is now, we are still waiting on the autopsy to state what she died from or how she died.

“No one from our family was in contact with (the website). We did not give them that information. It would only be me, her daughter or her son who would be giving out information. When we saw it, we were surprised to even see they even had the thing to say she died.”

Nurse McQueen, until the time of her death, owned Coastline Community Care Nursing Home. She was 57-years-old with underlying health issues. According to her sister, she is not known to have heart issues as reported on the website and social media.

“What they did is take a picture that my aunt uploaded to Facebook to say her niece passed and rest in peace,” Ms Smith continued. “That’s all they said. That is the picture that they used with the story.

“They did not contact the family at all. So who gave them that information, I really do not know. She didn’t have any heart problems as they said. She had little blood pressure issues because she has a little bit of weight on her. She always said she was healthy, but we knew she had blood pressure issues and that’s it. Nothing else.”

Nurse McQueen’s career in healthcare took her to Princess Margaret Hospital and Doctors Hospital, the latter of which was her last place of employment before she opened the nursing home in 2003.

She died at 3.30am on Saturday in her home.

“She had no ailments prior to that,” Ms Smith recalled of her sister. “She went to the nursing home on Friday and came home. No one said she had any issues. Her death was all very shocking. Her daughter was there and watched her. She gave her mother CPR before she died.

“She called 911 and the ambulance came, but by the time they arrived my sister had died. Then they called us. They woke me up at 3’clock in the morning to tell me my sister was dead. That was not easy. That was a shock, especially after having just spoken to her that week and nothing was wrong with her.”

Ms Smith is disheartened at the “mischief” circulating that insinuates her sister died from adverse effects of taking the COVID-19 vaccine now available in The Bahamas.

“It is so sad when people run with stories that are not true,” Ms Smith said. “We are still waiting to find out exactly what she died from. I just need the rumours to stop. This is just all about using someone to say, ‘don’t take the vaccine.’ To say, ‘oh this nurse took it and she died.’

“That is not true. They are just running on with something that they know nothing about. People just like rumours.”

Nurse McQueen is survived by two children – one son and one daughter.