The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

RELATIVES of the Long Island woman who health officials say died from COVID-19 last month believe she did not die because of complications with the virus, but rather from a heart attack.

They also have complained about the level of care the woman received in her final moments.

Brenville Miller, of Whymms, Long Island, said he was told by health officials that his wife, Sherry Miller, tested positive for COVID-19 some three days after she died on August 28.

While noting his wife had several underlying health issues, Mr Miller said he did not believe his wife had contracted the disease as she had experienced similar symptoms before.

“This isn’t the first time she had this cough and shortness of breath,” he added. “This been going on for years and it kinda strike me strange when they say ‘oh it’s COVID’ when we know for sure she died basically with a heart attack.

“This happened to us on vacation last year and it happened right in the house a few times and the symptoms was the same but now because this COVID in the air, everybody talking about COVID, COVID. I don’t believe it one bit.

“My wife has heart conditions, leg problems and she also had pressure. So this COVID thing because it’s in the air, it look like if you sneeze now you have COVID.”

Hours before she died, the Long Island resident said his wife complained to him of experiencing shortness of breath, a situation that forced them to carry her to the local clinic.

“Everything happened (so) sudden,” he said.

“She decided to go to the clinic. She went and they said ‘oh, her breathing is at like 50’ which is very low so the nurse told me if it was like 80 they would overnight her so she sat there and it came up to 70 something and they said ‘we’re going to airlift her’.”

He added: “The next thing I know — she didn’t go there unconscious or anything — she walked out the car into the wheelchair because she was always heavy, and she don’t move around like that so she normally would move with a stick or whatever.

“We got in the clinic and she sat down and then when they said the plane was coming, she got out the chair into the wheelchair to the doctor car and we got down there.”

Mr Miller claimed that upon arrival at the airport, medics were little prepared to care for his ailing wife.

“When we got down there, I thought they would’ve had an adjustable bed or so where she could’ve just turned around and sit down.

“They told her she had to get down on the ground (to go on the isolation tube). My wife hasn’t sit in my sofa in over seven years because that’s how much pain she have in her knees because doctors said she needed a knee replacement. And I watched them force her down like a piece of plastic on the ground.

“When my wife sat (on the isolation tube) because she was like 365 pounds, but when she got down on it, the air shift and she (rolled) over.”

Moments later, Mr Miller said they watched his wife take her last breath in their son’s arms, a memory he said he’ll never forget.

“Less than three minutes, she was dead. She had a heart attack right on the ground,” he said. “She died right in my son’s hand.

“I walked off and I see him trying to get her back you know and the doctor hollering back from Nassau ‘oh, I’m not getting no readings.’ They did CPR on her not even five minutes. . .It isn’t bringing back any life but in the future, air ambulance what charging $10,300 to pick up someone and they need to get their act together because they need to show up to these islands with the right (equipment) to take care of people who are elderly who people who can’t get down on their knees.”

He added: “My wife was in more pain trying to get down on the little plastic (isolation tube) than what she had otherwise with all of her medical issues.”

The family also claimed that the medical team did not have all the proper medical equipment needed to effectively perform CPR on Mrs Miller.

Mrs Miller’s son, Cameron, claimed: “She died in my hands and when they started CPR, they didn’t have the pump you put in your mouth to pump air so they didn’t have to give you mouth to mouth, they didn’t have in the plane nor in the doctor car.

“When she flatlined, you know they’re supposed to give you that shock or whatever, they didn’t have the tools to do that either.”

Mr Miller said his biggest regret is not letting his wife remain at the clinic a little longer to allow for her breathing levels to stabilise.

“I’m not a doctor and I was told that a person is supposed to be stabilised in order to airlift them so I don’t know because if you telling me 50 is too low and you need to be up to 85, why would you put somebody through (going on an air ambulance) if their breathing level is not right?”

Since the horrific ordeal, Mr Miller said he has not yet been notified by health officials on his COVID-19 status but noted that local nurses told his daughter that she tested positive for the disease.

“She has no symptoms, she’s in top shape,” he said.

As of Monday, COVID-19 cases in the country stood at 2,546, with 1,489 still active.

Eight cases have been recorded on Long Island to date.