Ruby Princess inquiry: COVID survivor fell sick after waitress ‘sneezed’ in her face
Ruby Princess passenger Ann Kavanagh was shocked when a waitress on board the ship sneezed in her face, and soon she would be fighting for her life after being struck down with coronavirus, an inquiry heard.
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A waitress on the Ruby Princess cruise ship sneezed in the face of a passenger who later got so ill with coronavirus she was placed in an induced coma, an inquiry heard.
Perth woman Ann Kavanagh boarded the notorious liner with her husband and four other couples to celebrate her birthday and 50th wedding anniversary.
“It was meant to be a very special time for us,” she said on Tuesday.
“I certainly would never had gotten on that ship had I known I was going to get so sick.”
Mrs Kavanagh said while dining at an on-board restaurant three days before the vessel docked in Sydney, she was shocked when a waitress taking food orders sneezed in her face.
“I was quite taken aback,” she said.
Mrs Kavanagh soon developed diarrhoea as the ship travelled back to Australia from New Zealand, and within days of disembarking at Circular Quay on March 19 she was hospitalised.
After flying straight back to Western Australia, Mrs Mrs Kavanagh spent about one month at St John of God Midland Public Hospital and needed a ventilator for a week as she battled COVID-19.
“I couldn’t breathe, I’d been shivering … I had a high temperature,” she said.
“I got worse; I had respiratory failure. They put me into ICU and intubated me. I was in a coma for eight days.”
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Mrs Kavanagh said two friends who had been sitting next to her at the restaurant also tested positive to the deadly disease, while her partner Kevin returned a negative result.
The inquiry heard that two months after being released from hospital, the coronavirus survivor still hasn’t completely recovered.
“All my hair has fallen out, I used to have beautiful curly hair but I don’t have much of it now,” Mrs Kavanagh said.
“I’m still not well. I’m still not as I was when I first got on that ship.”
Earlier the probe heard that when a fellow guest began to feel the first signs of the same disease that would nearly kill him, he ominously turned to a friend on board and said: “I’ve got it.”
Henry Karpik also had to be placed into an induced coma after he was struck down with COVID-19 during the vessel’s ill-fated voyage.
The 72-year-old had been diagnosed with influenza while on-board and although the ship’s doctor made no mention of coronavirus, Mr Kaprik had other ideas, his friend Lynette Jones said.
“He just said to me, “I’ve got it”,” she told the inquiry.
“He said “I’ve got that virus” and I said “come on now, you’ll be right”. But he obviously got sicker.”
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Within days of disembarking the ship in Sydney, Mr Karpik’s condition deteriorated and the retired policeman was placed on a ventilator for six weeks.
“Henry was unconscious for three and a half weeks intubated,” Mrs Jones said.
Mr Karpik’s wife Sue had organised a priest to read him his Last Rites and was beginning to make funeral arrangements when he miraculously pulled through, the inquiry heard.
Mr Karpik suffered extensive organ damage throughout his body and still undergoes rehabilitation.
Soon Mrs Jones, her husband Donald and their seven friends all became infected after travelling on the Ruby Princess together, the inquiry heard.
By March 16 Mrs Jones was bedridden in her cabin with headache, nausea, a cough and vomiting but the inquiry wasn’t told if she was swabbed for coronavirus.
Mrs Jones said she was swabbed “up the nose” at the medical centre and given tablets for the flu, but she was not told to self isolate.
And the coronavirus survivor, who had been on her ninth cruise, didn’t wear a mask when disembarking alongside 2,700 other guests, the inquiry heard.
“I didn’t feel the need,” she said.
“In hindsight, perhaps I should have, but I didn’t.”
Mrs Jones soon got tested for coronavirus at Wollongong Hospital, and received a positive result on March 24.
When Mr Jones developed a very high temperature the next day, the couple were taken by ambulance to Wollongong Hospital and Mrs Jones spent eight days in an isolation ward.
Mrs Jones said she had “garden variety” COVID-19 symptoms, but her husband needed oxygen and “was very sick.”
“He’s 82 and I think the only thing that saved him was that he’s fit, he’s not overweight, he doesn’t smoke,” she said.
The inquiry continues.