PITTSBURGH - OCTOBER 25: James Farrior #51 of the Pittsburgh Steelers looks on with his defensive teammates from the huddle during the NFL game against the Minnesota Vikings at Heinz Field on October 25, 2009 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Steelers defeated the Vikings 27-17. (Photo by Rick Stewart/Getty Images)
The fight of their lives against COVID-19
The video Christian Scotland-Williamson posted on his Instagram story one day last month was heartbreaking.
It was simply gut wrenching to watch, and nobody struggled more with seeing it than Scotland-Williamson himself.
It was something that broke his heart. Something that hurt him deeper than anything ever has in his life.
But it was something he felt he needed to share. Because while it hurt to the core, while he cried like he never has in his life watching it, he knew in his heart he had to post it.
It was a video of his mother, Hazel Scotland-Williamson, 60, laying in a hospital waiting room, struggling to breathe, an oxygen mask over her face aiding somewhat, but not nearly enough as you could visually see how much she was suffering.
She had been lying there waiting for six hours in the hospital in their hometown of Northeast London, England, waiting to have a chest x-ray to see if the symptoms that had her feeling so horrible were the beginning of COVID-19.
But despite the obvious struggle she was going through, despite how she was suffering, after the x-ray she was simply sent home.
At the same time his father, Guy Williamson, 63, was also waiting to see a doctor because he wasn’t feeling like himself. He thought was it was just a stomach issue and in his stubborn manner his son had become accustomed to, that he would be fine. So when the doctors offered him nausea medicine and told him just head home, he was more than willing to do so and not think anything more of it.
“For four days my mom was saying she wasn’t feeling too well, she felt like she had the flu,” said Scotland-Williamson. “I had talked to her on the phone, and I didn’t want to bring it up and say anything about COVID. On the fourth day she said she was feeling a little bit better. But that is just mom trying to put on a brave face.
“Fortunately, my brother was home and toward the end of that week my dad was feeling ill with gastro problems. He was sick and throwing up. Then one day my mom couldn’t breathe. My brother took both of them to the hospital at 1 a.m. My mom got chest x-rays and was put on a little bit of oxygen. My dad, being the classic male, said I am fine, I just have an upset stomach. He was given some medicine to help with nausea and gastro problems which was completely unnecessary because that is a symptom of how his COVID was manifesting. He was vomiting, so they didn’t give him a chest x-ray or anything. They got sent home about midday.
“They said they didn’t want to keep people in the hospital unless they were critical because there was so much COVID in the hospital. If you didn’t have the worst case, you could end up getting something worse than you came in with. So, they went home.”
But the image in the video couldn’t leave Scotland-Williamson’s mind. As he sat helpless in his apartment in Pittsburgh, unable to head back to England because of travel restrictions, it ate away at him, the thought of seeing his mom like that and knowing his dad was having issues as well. It kept him awake at night and completely occupied his mind, because he knew something was really wrong.
And he was right. A few days after their first visit to the hospital, his mom was still bed ridden and his dad was getting progressively worse. And then he got a phone call from his older brother, Alexander, letting him know things weren’t good.
“He said he was going to take them back to the hospital because my dad was getting worse,” said Scotland-Williamson. “He couldn’t really breathe. My mom had a bad cough and was struggling to breathe when sleeping but was feeling somewhat better, so they didn’t let her go. My dad said he didn’t need to go. But it was bad.
“My brother called an ambulance and they had to carry my dad down the stairs. He couldn’t really breathe. He had lost about 30 pounds from the nausea. My brother wanted to go with my dad in the ambulance, but because of how contagious COVID is, and not knowing for sure yet if they had it, you couldn’t have anyone go and have visitors. I got a call at two in the morning after my brother followed the ambulance to the hospital driving himself. My mom called and told me they had taken him in. That he was in the best place possible. They placed him on oxygen. He was still throwing up a lot. My brother couldn’t go in, so he went home. They got a call a while later – around midday there – they got the call that he had deteriorated even more, and they had to resuscitate him and put him on a ventilator. That is the worst call I ever got in my life.
“He was at risk anyway. He is a 63-year old black male who is diabetic and has health issues already. Those were the people who were dying. Then he wasn’t able to breathe at all. It was horrible knowing he was there at the hospital by himself, not allowed any visitors. My mom was having to call the hospital, try to reach the ward he was in just to find out how he was doing. They were so overwhelmed. Normally it’s one-to-one or one-to-two in England in intensive care. They were operating one nurse to four patients. When she reached someone, it wasn’t even always the nurse dealing with him. And he was still throwing up, so it was hard to keep him on the oxygen. That further complicated things. We spent three or four days not being able to speak to him. He was on his own. That was the toughest part. You don’t know if you will ever be able to speak to them again. Especially for me, I had last seen them back in January when I left. I only get to see them once or twice a year. It’s so hard with the distance.”
