Coronavirus in Adelaide: Mother of Sacred Heart College student tell how her family is coping with COVID-19 diagnosis
An Adelaide mother tells how she and her teenage son – a student at Sacred Heart College – are recovering in quarantine from coronavirus. She also has an important message for the SA community.
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An Adelaide mother has told of her shock after she and her teenage son become ill with coronavirus as she urged people to show “kindness” amid the mounting global health pandemic crisis.
The mother of two, 46, told The Advertiser on Monday that she and her teenage son are recovering in isolation after contracting COVID-19 in the past fortnight.
Determined to beat the deadly disease, she said her son, a Year 11 Sacred Heart College pupil, was also in quarantine but on the mend.
Every other person who had close contact with them has returned negative tests.
The pair are among 20 local virus cases while six patients have now recovered and been discharged from SA hospitals.
Echoing pleas from authorities to remain calm, the mother urged people to not panic and “clog up” virus testing clinics unless they showed flu-like symptoms such as a cough or fever.
“Three or four months ago I wanted the world to stop for a bit so I could catch up on things – well now I have my bloody wish as I now have all the time in the world,” she joked from her Flinders Medical Centre isolation ward on Monday.
“I have also wished to win the lottery but that has yet to come true. But life has just stopped for me for a little while as I wait this thing out.
“I am fine. I want people to know that I am getting better and what has been spread about my family is not right.
“Our friends who had the closest contact with us have all come back with negative tests.”
But she also urged: “I would ask people to spread kindness and not panic. Please don’t clog up the health system if you are not feeling unwell.
“It is not someone like me we need to be concerned about – it is the elderly so please try and help them and be kind.
“The doctors and all the staff here are fantastic, as has (been) SA Health, they have all been wonderful.
“I just want people to stop clogging everything up and leave the clinics for those who really need it.”
The mother became unwell after flying to Melbourne for an international audio-visual conference almost a fortnight ago, which was also attended by hundreds of overseas travellers.
But the successful businesswoman, who asked not to be named, said doctors initially believed she didn’t have the disease due to a lack of international travel history.
She went back to a clinic to get tested but again was told there was no concern as she had not travelled overseas.
She then asked her GP to refer her to the Repatriation Health Precinct drive-through clinic in Adelaide’s south.
The following day she returned a positive reading and was immediately taken to hospital.
While her husband is anxious, he has not contracted the disease and neither has her other teenage son.
She urged those who knew her family, and the wider community, to not panic because as soon as her eldest son felt unwell she made him stay home from school.
Doctors believe her son, who attends Sacred Heart’s senior campus in Somerton Park, contracted the virus from her.
Students from two classrooms, where the infected teenager had been in contact with others for at least two hours, have been put into quarantine for the next fortnight.
Cleaners disinfected the campus over the weekend.