Ruby Princess inquiry: Sick guest ‘collapsed’ at Sydney Airport
A Ruby Princess coronavirus survivor told an inquiry when his influenza tests came back negative during the cruise, the ship’s doctor told him “I don’t think they’re going to be happy with us.”
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- Cruise industry ‘didn’t care’ about tests: Inquiry
- Health ‘close to breaking point’ before Ruby disaster
NSW Health called a grieving husband and Ruby Princess coronavirus survivor two days after he lost his wife to the deadly disease to check whether they were both still self isolating, an inquiry heard.
Queensland couple Graeme and Karla Lake boarded the ill-fated vessel in March to celebrate her 75th birthday, but within days of returning home they were both hospitalised.
They were quarantined together in an intensive care room at Caboolture Hospital and the distraught Vietnam War veteran sat with the body of his partner for more than eight hours after she’d died.
Mr Lake said NSW Health workers called him half a dozen times and “not once did they mention that people had been tested for COVID-19, but by then I'd already known anyway.”
“In the end I did tell them where to go, because Karla had passed away and two days later they rang me and asked whether we were still isolating,” he said.
"They obviously weren't up to date with anything so I just told them: 'Don't waste my time'."
The long-time cruisers both suffered rheumatoid arthritis and Mr Lake noticed his wife’s dry cough worsening around the time they disembarked the ship in Sydney alongside 2,700 other passengers on March 19.
Mr Lake said fellow guests weren’t wearing masks as they caught a bus to Sydney airport and flew to Brisbane, while another coronavirus survivor told the inquiry he saw one sick passenger collapse before he boarded a flight.
The couple had to ask Caboolture Hospital three times for Mrs Lake to be swabbed for COVID-19, and staff initially refused to test Mr Lake and the rest of their six-strong group who all later tested positive.
Mrs Lake developed a fever and was admitted to hospital, while her husband stayed at home where he became progressively more unwell.
Mr Lake’s voice faltered slightly as he told the inquiry he’d never owned a mobile phone, so told his wife: “you ring me every day and I’ll make sure I’m at home to get it.”
Mr Lake soon joined his wife as they battled the disease together, but ten days after leaving the Ruby Princess, she died.
COVID-19 survivor Anthony Londero needed an emergency ambulance transfer when the ship docked at Circular Quay in the early hours of March 19.
He testified that when his influenza tests came back negative during the cruise, the ship’s doctor told him “I don’t think they’re going to be happy with us.”
“Because it wasn’t the flu. I didn’t really understand what that meant,” he said on Friday.
Dr Ilse Von Watzdorf told Mr Londero she didn’t believe he had the disease, and he was allowed to visit his cabin to pack hours before he was stretchered off the vessel, the probe heard.
“I felt quite unwell with flu-like symptoms but I was very apprehensive about going into the hospital because I was concerned about being put with people who had coronavirus,” he said.
Mr Londero and 77-year-old Lesley Bacon both received ambulance transfers off the ship, and later tested positive to COVID-19.
Within a week Ms Bacon became the first passenger to die from the virus and the notorious liner has now become the single largest source of infection nationally.
Mr Londero testified that he went on the cruise to New Zealand with his wife and another couple, getting stuck into sightseeing as well as trivia, karaoke, dancing and choir on board the ship.
“I try to go to as many activities as I can. Every night we went to the theatre, until I became unwell,” he said.
Mr Londero developed a sore throat three days into the cruise on March 11, before he and his group explored Dunedin, Wellington and Napier.
“I didn’t feel well … but they insisted that I come along, so I went with them,” he said.
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After developing a number of symptoms including an upper respiratory tract infection, Mr Londero presented to the ship’s senior doctor on March 16 – the same day the Australian government moved to shut its maritime borders to cruise ships.
“I had a temperature, and muscular pain and a headache,” he said.
Mr Londero praised the caring efforts of Dr Von Watzdorf and nurses, who immediately admitted him for a heart condition, and he had a vague memory of medical clinic staff beginning to wear masks around him from March 17 or 18.
Ms Bacon had also presented with similar upper respiratory and fever-like symptoms, as well as nerve damage.
Dr Von Watzdorf told Mr Londero and the liner’s port agent that the two passengers were not getting transfers for their respiratory ailments, yet warned paramedics to wear protective gear as a COVID-19 precaution.
Before he was taken off the ship to Royal Prince Alfred hospital, Mr Londero was asked to pay $8,000 for medical expenses.
“I realised I didn’t have enough money in that account, so I did a transfer to top that up,” he said.
The inquiry heard Mr Londero’s insurance later covered the medical bill while Carnival paid the $500 excess.
Mr Londero said his wife has recovered after also contracting coronavirus, “but it has left her with mental issues.”
“I’m definitely much improved, I just don’t feel as vital as I was before,” he said via video link.
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The inquiry heard the Quirindi couple later wrote to Dr Von Watzdorf in April apologising for the “harrowing time” she’d been through, adding their home was “always open” to the doctor.
“We’d like to thank you and your beautiful nurses for the care and kindness shown to myself and Tony,” Mr Londero’s wife wrote.
“He almost succumbed to the virus but pulled through.”
Coronavirus survivor Percy Anderson told the inquiry he spotted fellow guests collapsing at Sydney airport the day the ship docked.
The nine-time veteran cruiser said he didn’t feel sick until after he’d travelled home to Townsville, but noticed several people on the vessel who “looked very unwell.”
Mr Anderson said while in a ship elevator he noticed a masked woman standing next to a man in a hoodie with the zipper “done up to his nose.”
“He was breathing very heavily and he was sweating,” Mr Anderson said.
After disembarking on March 19, Mr Anderson said he and his wife saw the same passengers at a baggage drop off area at Sydney Airport.
“I heard a bit of a commotion … the lady I’d seen in the elevator, she had a mask on and she was laying on the floor,” he said.
“A short time later the paramedics came.”
Two days after returning home Mr Anderson was struck down with a month-long illness which included weight loss, fever, headache, dizziness and fatigue.
“I felt pretty well crook the whole time,” the elderly man, who has lost his sense of smell, said.
“I’m still not 100 per cent.”
David Walters and his sick wife were about to board a flight from Sydney back to northwest Tasmania on March 20 when NSW Health called confirming she had COVID-19.
His wife ended up being hospitalised at RPA for five weeks on a ventilator, and the couple only got home to Launceston in May.
Mr Walters, who also contracted the virus, said his partner first went to the Ruby Princess medical clinic on March 17 complaining of a cough and a headache, but an influenza test came back negative.
He said the ship’s doctor made no mention of a potential coronavirus risk and “seemed to think it was still the flu.”
“I didn’t know how that worked … we were basically told to take panadol to try to get the temperature down,” he said.
Yamba woman Wendy Williams said she first visited the on-board clinic around the same time feeling unwell, but a nurse “reluctantly” took her temperature.
“We had to ask him three or four times and talk him into it … he really didn’t want to know anything about me,” she said.
Suspecting she already had COVID-19, Mrs Williams and her husband decided to quarantine in their cabins, had to ask for a mask before they got off the liner and then self-isolated at home on their own initiative.
Mrs Williams later spent three weeks at Lismore Hospital fighting off the disease, and told the inquiry when she was diagnosed she thought she’d been “given a death sentence.”
“It just felt like someone had just told me I was about to die,” she said.
The inquiry continues.