Everyone who knows the family of Flor Meléndez and Nilda Barrios knows that where one goes, everyone goes. It is a family so united that this bond is impossible to untie. Only until they had to live closely the greatest fear of the moment: having one of their loved ones hospitalized with the coronavirus (Covid-19).
Mayra Meléndez – one of the daughters of the Meléndez Barrios couple – recounted how her family lived moments of anguish and uncertainty when having to leave the award-winning leader alone in the hospital at the mercy of health professionals who keep him stable from this new disease.
“We have been concerned. When Daddy had the first symptoms we thought it was the heart. But when they presented us on Friday that the table he had was 80 percent of the coronavirus, we were afraid because of his age, “Mayra said in an interview with THE VOCERO.
The anxiety of the members of the Meléndez Barrios family was very high – according to the special education worker – when she was unable to stay by the 73-year-old patriarch to take care of him.
The rapid spread of this disease was like a lunge.
“The most difficult thing was managing that we couldn’t be with him. We are a very close family and it was very difficult for us to leave him that night in the hospital at the mercy of health professionals, ”said Mayra, who expressed solidarity with many other families who are going through the same situation with their loved ones in Puerto Rico because of the Covid-19.
Until Monday, the number of infections was 174, with six people dead.
“One now understands the families who are going through this. Not being around to attend to them. And although thank God we have technology, it is not the same. It creates a lot of anxiety and sadness, “he said.
“They were difficult days of a lot of tension, but also of a lot of prayer because we are a family of faith and we have been protected by trust (in God) and that, in everything, daddy does not present respiratory problems and that gives us relief”, Mayra abounded.
Meléndez is stable at the Cardiovascular Hospital in San Juan, where he will be detained for several more days, according to Mayra. Her mom also tested positive for Covid-19, but she is asymptomatic at home.
Now it’s time to wait patiently for Flor to heal and follow the doctors’ guidelines taking all extreme care measures. Just as they did when they announced Sunday that the top winner of the National Superior Basketball League (BSN) had tested positive for the coronavirus.
“You have to have a lot of awareness and prevention to be able to do things well. After we found out, Daddy’s concern was trying to contain the domino effect, which is what’s important. We were very responsible making a map, starting with daddy, and there we decided to make it public, ”he said.
“They have been very hard days. The most difficult thing is the distance. But thank God my dad is not serious. I don’t want to imagine people with critical conditions, who need a lot of strength and prayer, “he concluded.
Mayra pointed out that the focus of her father’s contagion could have been on Flor’s father’s ninth birthday, Don Florencio Meléndez, whose death was announced on February 23.
Another difficult moment for this family that remains more united than ever despite the circumstances.
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