The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

WHILE families were celebrating on Mother’s Day, Marissa Roberts, a mother of an adopted child, lost her life.

Ms Roberts passed away at 3am on May 9 at the Beach Villas in the Berry Islands.

A Ministry of Health release dated May 13 reported a May 9 COVID-19 death of a 43-year-old woman resident of the Berry Islands.

According to Ms Roberts’ aunt, she thinks her niece was tested for the disease that Friday and the results came back positive.

“I have never seen nothing like that yet,” the aunt, who did not want to be named, said.

“I thought someone stabbed her when the doctor had me called to come down to the Beach Villa….I cried so much I probably wake up everybody (at) three o’clock that morning around there.”

Ms Roberts was overweight and reportedly had preexisting conditions.

“She had hypertension among other things the doctors say,” her aunt said.

She recalled seeing her niece on May 7 when she noticed something was amiss.

“Actually I was off the island for a week because I had attended the funeral on Andros, but when I came back she didn’t look good to me,” the aunt said. “She didn’t look good so I didn’t go in the house. I was afraid. I just went around to the back of the window….”

She claimed that her niece’s weight also presented some issues.

“So, I called the doctor and they told me not to go inside, but they refused to drive the ambulance because she was overweight—over 600…pounds.”

Asked if her niece had suspected where she contracted the virus, the aunt revealed she asked but she “could barely talk”.

Eventually, her niece would receive some help on May 8.

“She got medical attention right around the house. The doctors …they came (near) because there wasn’t no one to drive the ambulance,” her relative said. “They just give it to (her) outside. I saw her pass out (something) about 10 or 11 times right there.”

“When I say outside they had to bring the oxygen tanks from the clinic and you had the doctor and about four nurses (giving her care).”

At one point, the woman did receive care at a clinic but was sent back home, the relative said.

While fighting for her life, Ms Roberts’s mind was on her seven-year-old adopted daughter.

The aunt recounted: “I called her on Saturday. We spoke, she came out the clinic…I didn’t want her to talk because she sounded out of breath and she said ‘aunty everything going to be okay you know’ but she kept talking about this little adopted girl.

“I said you can’t worry about (the child). You gotta worry about your health, but I can’t take this little girl. It would be a strain on me.”

At last report, confirmed cases for the Berry Islands stood at 80 up to press time.

Two hundred and twenty-one people have died locally from the disease.