Coroner releases findings into Kelvin Nguyen’s Covid death

A coroner has released her findings on the case of a Newcomb man whose body was found days after he died from Covid.

Kelvin Nguyen died in 2020 after contracting coronavirus.

The body of a Newcomb man who died after contracting Covid was discovered days after his death, a coroner has found.

Suong “Kelvin” Van Nguyen died aged 51 in August 2020.

Mr Nguyen lived alone, and shared a daughter with his ex-partner.

On July 24 2020, Mr Nguyen and his colleagues at Turosi Golden Farms chicken processing plant in Breakwater were directed to isolate at home after a Covid outbreak was confirmed at the factory.

Mr Nguyen received a positive test result on July 31.

On August 2, Barwon Health’s community monitoring team (CMT) contacted Mr Nguyen over the phone and he reported he had shortness of breath when coughing and lying down.

This was the last contact the CMT had with Mr Nguyen.

He spoke to his former partner on August 3.

Kelvin Nguyen.

Mr Nguyen told his former partner that “he was feeling much better” but she thought that he sounded short of breath.

She told Mr Nguyen she thought he should go to hospital, but Mr Nguyen declined on the basis it was too busy in the hospitals and if he wasn’t well, he would call an ambulance, the coroner’s report said.

This was the last known contact with Mr Nguyen.

On August 3, the CMT made three unsuccessful attempts to contact Mr Nguyen.

Coroner Leveasque Peterson wrote Barwon Health’s care and clinical management of Mr Nguyen was “sub-optimal” with respect to its own policies and procedures from August 3.

But she noted it was understandable the CMT was overwhelmed.

The team again attempted to contact Mr Nguyen on August 5 and 6.

A report received by the Police Assistance Line from Barwon Health on August 5 did not meet the threshold for escalation and was closed without further action, the coroner’s report said.

“Given the volume of reports received daily by the Police Assistance Line at the time, and that the service was not established to provide support or welfare checks of Covid-19 positive patients, I have not identified any issues with the action taken by Victoria Police,” Ms Peterson found.

On August 8 and 9, the CMT attempted to contact Mr Nguyen multiple times.

The team leader escalated the matter to the health department and police located Mr Nguyen deceased in his home on August 9.

The coroner found he died at some time between August 3 and 4 from Covid-19 pneumonia.

Ms Peterson found Barwon Health’s failure to escalate Mr Nguyen’s case on August 3 to Victoria Police represented a “missed opportunity” to provide timely treatment.

“However there is insufficient evidence of a causal link between Barwon Health’s failure to escalate Mr Nguyen’s lack of response on 3 August 2020 and Mr Nguyen’s death as Mr Nguyen’s age, respiratory condition (asthma), thalassaemia and hyperthyroidism, and the lethality of Covid-19 likely complicated his experience,” she wrote.

“Even with the best possible care Mr Nguyen may have succumbed to the disease. “Furthermore, I accept that the height of the second wave when Mr Nguyen tragically died was an extremely challenging time for health care providers including Barwon Health.”

On September 3, 2020, Barwon Health updated its policy for the external escalation path for non-contactable Covid-19 patients.

Originally published as Coroner releases findings into Kelvin Nguyen’s Covid death