Nathaniel Bailey, who has died aged 36, and his mother Blyth Bailey, aged 62, who also died. Both were victims of COVID-19.
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Senior Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
A FAMILY is grieving after losing their mother and brother to COVID-19 just a day apart.
Blyth Bailey, a bubbly church-loving mother-of-four and grandmother to seven, loved watching movies, cracking jokes and attending Mount Tabor Church with her close-knit family.
But after a brief fight with COVID-19, she died on Saturday – one day before her 36-year-old son also succumbed to the disease.
Left behind are stunned and heartbroken relatives, several of whom are battling COVID-19 as well and have been in and out of hospital with serious symptoms of the disease.
Mrs Bailey, 62, was an insurance company worker. She and her son, Police Sergeant Nathaniel Bailey, thought they could beat the virus with a regimen of vitamins, bush medicine and rest.
They never imagined their condition would deteriorate so quickly, according to daughter and sister, Alicia Bailey, who said yesterday: “We are overwhelmed right now.”
Ms Bailey, 27, said their nightmare began when she and her brother felt scratchy throats earlier this month.
The grandchildren, ages seven, five, two and one, began to show signs of illness soon after but the family did not immediately seek medical attention.
“We sprung into action and tried to medicate,” Ms Bailey said. “We didn’t have the money to get everyone tested.
“My sister was the first to go to the hospital, but she came out. And then my brother went but he never got released from the hospital, and then my mom died Saturday, followed by my brother (on Sunday), and that was on my dad’s birthday. My brother had gotten airlifted to the States on Friday night and was in stable condition over there before he deteriorated.”
In total, at least six members of the Bailey family have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last two weeks: Ms Bailey, her mother, her brother, her sister-in-law, her sister and her brother-in-law.
Ms Bailey said her 73-year-old father hasn’t been tested, but has symptoms of the disease.
Mrs Bailey had diabetes; her son had no known comorbidities, according to Ms Bailey, a science teacher at Government High School.
In the days before she died, the Bailey family matriarch seemed fine.
“She was having dance parties with her grandkids,” Ms Bailey said.
On Saturday, however, she became concerned with her mother’s breathing.
“The day before she died I was just in the hospital for COVID, so that morning I noticed her breathing started to get hard,” she said. “When I saw that and I felt her fingers cold, I said I need to take your sugar because I think what happened to me is happening to you. We were flushing and doing our best, but it just got worse and at that point she didn’t want to go to the hospital.
“She said if it gets worse then she would go. I told her you have to go to the hospital because your fingers are also turning blue. I told her you either go in an ambulance or in the car. She was struggling to breathe while taking her to the car. I told her you need to fight for your grandchildren.
“When I called the ambulance, all ambulances were out. She was eight steps away from being in the car, but she collapsed just right on the porch. She was pronounced dead at 2.14pm.”
Ms Bailey and her 31-year-old sister have been in and out of hospital recently.
“It isn’t just get better and done,” she said. “You will relapse every other day. You will feel better then your condition deteriorates. The nights are always the worst with fevers and constant sweating.”
Ms Bailey said only her eldest brother, who is 48-years-old, has been vaccinated in the family.
“There was an awkward period when the vaccines went out and we were applying for appointments, but they got taken too quickly,” she said. “We were supposed to take the vaccine on Friday past, but we came down with COVID so we couldn’t take the vaccine.”
She said getting vaccinated is “absolutely” important and warned people the Delta variant, the presence of which has not been officially confirmed in The Bahamas, is “no joke”.
“If you are not vaccinated and you go to vote for election, just know what will happen next,” she said, adding that Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis should postpone the election date.
“There is no ifs, ands buts or maybes about it. Absolutely get vaccinated. So many people have died in the past week, this past month, you absolutely must get vaccinated.”
Comments
SP 2 years, 8 months ago
This is so, sad. But do the vaccines actually work?
JERUSALEM—The massive surge of COVID-19 infections in Israel, one of the most vaccinated countries on earth, is pointing to a complicated path ahead for America and the world.
Israel reported 9,831 new diagnosed cases on Tuesday, a hairbreadth away from the worst daily figure ever recorded in the country—10,000—at the peak of the third wave. More than 350 people have died of the disease in the first three weeks of August.
In a Sunday press conference, the directors of seven public hospitals announced that they could no longer admit any coronavirus patients. With 670 COVID-19 patients requiring critical care, their wards are overflowing and staff are at breaking point.
Dr. Bethel from Freeport offered a simple prevention protocol that works but the government aren't allowed to consider it. Someone has a lot of blood on their hands!!!
JokeyJack 2 years, 8 months ago
Blah blah blah. I hear pharmacies selling out of earplugs.
OMG 2 years, 8 months ago
Its fools like you who clog up hospital beds.
Honestman 2 years, 8 months ago
More and more people are dying in The Bahamas from COVID - 19 and the tragedy is that most of these deaths are preventable. How many deaths of loved ones is it going to take before Bahamians realise that getting vaccinated is the best form of protection against this deadly virus? America is now advising against travel to our islands. The UK has recently put Jamaica on its Red list and The Bahamas will follow shortly at this rate. Our hospitals are overwhelmed. SP asks if these vaccines really work? Well as far as I can determine there have been NO deaths from COVID here in The Bahamas of fully vaccinated persons. So if you want to play Russian Roulette by continuing to delay vaccination then go ahead but you had better live a VERY sheltered life because this virus is everywhere. Good luck.
tribanon 2 years, 8 months ago
"Well as far as I can determine there have been NO deaths from COVID here in The Bahamas of fully vaccinated persons."
How are you in any better position than the rest of us to make such a determination @Honestman?
Public health officials around the world under pressure from governments and big pharma would have all of us believe there have been no COVID-19 deaths among the vaccinated. But most of us now know that simply cannot be true because of (1) the exponential waning effect of the vaccines that begins about 3 months after getting jabbed, (2) the reduced efficacy of the vaccines in fighting the more dominant and virulent Delta variant, and (3) the ever increasing number of infection 'break throughs' among the vaccinated.
newcitizen 2 years, 8 months ago
Get outside, take a walk on the beach, there is a world outside. Stop wasting your life sh*tposting on the tribune.
tribanon 2 years, 8 months ago
You must be a neanderthal if you think everyone posting comments to this website must be indoors when doing so. lol
Cobalt 2 years, 8 months ago
@newcitizen. Tribanon, John, ThisisOurs and a few other idiots that post on this website are just plain, dumb idiots. They’re a product of the F average plaguing our country. I bet my life neither of them passed a science class much less graduated high school. I’m doing my best to exterminate people like them. They’re like festering rats.
ohdrap4 2 years, 8 months ago
Definitely non compos mentis. Cobalt, are you in a psychiatric facility?
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 8 months ago
I think you missed what SP was saying. In Israel where vaccinates rates are high, fully vaccinated persons are being hospitalized and are dying. Its a cautionary tale for us. Vaccinate but do not adopt an arrogant attitude that if youre vaccinated youre immune, hospitalization and death might be less likely in your case which is great but you could also end up being counted among the "likely". so everybody, not just unvaccinated, need to act like they at risk. Added to that the govt needs to start acting like every Bahamian is vulnerable vaccinated or not and anyone crossing the border is a potential threat
ConchFretter 2 years, 8 months ago
Agree with ThisisOurs. Vaccinations are like seat belts. 1) they decrease the risk for serious injury/illness and death but they are not foolproof. 2) someone dying in a car crash while wearing a seat belt is not proof that seatbelts do not work 3) just because you have a seat belt does not mean you can drive recklessly -- drive safely regardless.
Bobsyeruncle 2 years, 8 months ago
Correct data on Israel can be obtained directly from the Israel Ministry of Health website.
https://datadashboard.health.gov.il/C...">https://datadashboard.health.gov.il/C.... Don't forget to ask your browser to translate the page
Paints a slightly different picture. They are currently averaging 14 deaths per day but it doesn't specify whether fully vaccinated or unvaccinated. Their charts do show hospitalization cases for fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated and unvaccinated. I'll let you guys & gals check out the data if you're truly interested.
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 8 months ago
(I cant determine vaccination status in hospitalizations from that dashboard. maybe its there..)
From businessinsider.com. Nearly 80% of Israeli adults are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, which constitutes 58% of the country's relatively young population, according to NPR.
Over half of the population was fully vaccinated by March 25, and for a moment, it looked like the country was on its way to herd immunity.
But the rising case rates in Israel may indicate that the protection afforded by vaccines wanes over time. Health officials and Pfizer scientists noted a lapse in protection six to eight months after the second shot, which was timed right around the Delta variant's arrival in Israel this summer.
Half of the seriously ill COVID patients currently hospitalized in Israel were fully vaccinated five or more months ago. Most of them are over 60 years old and have comorbidities, putting them at a higher risk of developing severe illness.
They also said the world is now looking at Israel's data. Fancy that. I wonder if we could learn anything if we looked too.... as was suggested 2 months ago..
Bobsyeruncle 2 years, 8 months ago
Yeah, it's not the easiest dashboard to decipher, but here is the data from the dashboard as of today
Number fully vaccinated = 5.5 million = 60% of the 9.3 million population (including minors). Per your reference it looks like 75 - 80% of population over 16 are fully vaccinated.
Most seriously ill patients in 40-50 & 50-60 age groups are unvaccinated Most seriously ill patients in 60-70, 70-80, 80-90, 90-100 looks to be split pretty evenly between fully vaccinated & unvaccinated.
Based on the graph for the severely ill numbers, the current number of seriously ill (hospitalized) cases is increasing for unvaccinated people and staying pretty constant, or increasing slightly for fully vaccinated and partially vaccinated.
For August 24th (Tuesday) seriously ill cases per 100,000 people is as follows: Unvaccinated = 256 per 100,000 Partially vaccinated = 58 per 100,000 Fully vaccinated = 19 per 100,000
At the beginning of the month the numbers were 42, 22 & 10 respectively.
Note, these are NOT per day numbers
Given that the minority (20%) of the adult population is unvaccinated, the number of seriously ill cases (256 per 100,000 people) is much more significant than the number of cases (19 per 100,000) in the 80% of the population that is fully vaccinated.
Hopefully, with a basic understanding of Math, people on here can see what's really going on in Israel, and where the increase in numbers is coming from.
whogothere 2 years, 8 months ago
Correct thisisours - 1. Vaccination is a 'flash in the pan' for protection. 2. it fails quickly 3. particularly in at risk populations 4. But in the short term keep peeps out of hospital. 5. It has not lived up to expectations (as many of us skeptics called it when we were looking at the uk and Israeli data) but is better than nothing 6. Natural antibody protection is still the best (uk and Israeli data supports this - the cdc's one study to contrary is crud) 7. Get ready for boosters for life!!
JokeyJack 2 years, 8 months ago
Yes, most of the deaths are preventable except that WORLDWIDE a decision has been made to obstruct and even outlaw medication. Persons are given ONE option and ONE option only - vaccination. Does anyone know ANY other disease or affliction that has only one option for treatment - as in, take this thing and do not take anything else? Take NyQuil but do not take aspirin? Take Adalat but do not take aspirin? Put a cast on a broken limb, but do not reset the bone in place first? Put peroxide on a cut but do not cover it with a bandaid afterward? Do any of those examples make any sense? If not, then why does the current one make sense?
torymagnum 2 years, 8 months ago
Name diseases where only one option is provided to stop the sirens? POLIO SMALL POX HEPATITIS MEASLES AND THE List GOES ON!!!
tribanon 2 years, 8 months ago
A sad story indeed. One can only begin to wonder how many lives have been and will be lost as a result of our very dysfunctional and under-resourced public health system. And to think the leader of our country lays claim to being a 'well-trained and qualified' medical doctor. COVID-19 patients with good medical insurance coverage who receive treatment at Doctors Hospital seem to have much better outcomes on average.
We can expect to see many more stories like this one on the front page of The Tribune between now and September 16. The Tribune is now engaged in an all out scaremongering campaign to dissuade as many unvaccinated voters as possible from showing up at the polls on election day. The second to last paragraph of the above 'news' article really says it all.
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 8 months ago
"COVID-19 patients with good medical insurance coverage who receive treatment at Doctors Hospital seem to have much better outcomes on average."
Probably true. Would be a good data angle to investigate. Was told from march last year, try to stay out of PMH, if you go in and have to go on a ventilator....And that doesnt say all the doctors are bad. It just says you might be unlucky one night and be assigned to Cobalt. And who will bat an eye if a COVID patient dies?
OMG 2 years, 8 months ago
Went private at PMH years ago, room was disgusting plumbing didn't work etc etc but the real issue was the totally incompetant night nurse who refused to believe I was having an asthma attack . Without persistance on my wife's part I would have died. Added to which after surgery rare visits by nursing staff during day shift but you could hear them laughing and having a great time further down the corridor. Undoubtably many hard working and efficient nurses but quality of medical attention seems to vary .
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 8 months ago
They need to do something with the quality of their diagnoses. You wouldnt expect someone just out of medical school to have the experience of an SHO or attending so they cant leave those people to misdiagnose and incorrectly treat people who could otherwise have good outcomes. And sometimes those people who dont get the early guidance and supervision just pass through the system year after year and end up "senior" doctors. the other doctors know who to tell their families not to go to but the general public are like sitting ducks.
John 2 years, 8 months ago
Several of the vaccines manufacturers are admitting that the vaccines are becoming more ineffective against the Delta strains of the virus and, unfortunately, expect more breakthrough cases as more people become vaccinated. FORTUNATELY, FORTUNATELY, some of the highest vaccinated countries, including the UK, are finally managing to bend their curves and see new numbers of corona cases starting to come down. This may be just a temporary decline or it can be a strong indication that the Delta, which is thus far the mostinfectious and most deadly strain can be beaten. It is unfortunate that lives are being lost in this fashion where several members of a family are meeting an untimely demise. But again the public needs to be reminded that even after being vaccinated, they must continue to follow other safety protocols, even amongst family members. It’s sad that the powers that be continue to put blame and guilt trips on unvaccinated people.
Emilio26 2 years, 8 months ago
John well that's why Dr. Fauci along with CDC recommended americans who got the Pfizer vaccine last year to take a booster shot.
GodSpeed 2 years, 8 months ago
BE AFRAID
TalRussell 2 years, 8 months ago
Forgive me for asking Jesus — give us more details about the wickedness role — if — some local church's spiritual leaders have played in — misusing your words — be justifying separating the congregations' sheeps from the goats may be why some members' flock remains unvaccinated. — Yes?
John 2 years, 8 months ago
‘ For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.’
TalRussell 2 years, 8 months ago
@ComradeJohn, do, please place me on Must Alert — Two Woman's will be grinding segment, — Yes?
John 2 years, 8 months ago
Grinding corn at the mill. Don’t get it twisted.
John 2 years, 8 months ago
New International Version Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.”
New Living Translation Two women will be grinding flour together at the mill; one will be taken, the other left.”
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 8 months ago
The minute I read it and before I read your response I said theyre gonna have a field day with that one. lol
John 2 years, 8 months ago
“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isa. 40:31). ... “For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee” (Isa. 41:10, 13). Christ overcame death and the grave. And those that believe and die ( in the Lord) are not lost… but we shall all not die.
John 2 years, 8 months ago
‘ 50I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” h’
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 8 months ago
Hey I believe all of it, I just put myself in other peoples shoes. Everyone free to come to their own conclusions.
themessenger 2 years, 8 months ago
Poor ole john, the only thing he could grind these days is he teeth Lol.
SP 2 years, 8 months ago
It would be very interesting and would probably save others lives to know what regimen of vitamins and bush medicine the Bailey's were relying on.
TalRussell 2 years, 8 months ago
A video about a —3-year-old toddler — struggling to breathe in (Pediatrics) ICU — battling COVID, pneumonia, — The RedAuthority — would rather — you did not see — Yes?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLr60...">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLr60...
DDK 2 years, 8 months ago
Has pneumonia not always been a possible outcome of many corona viral infections not treated on a timely basis with proper medicine?
tribanon 2 years, 8 months ago
Yup.
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 8 months ago
"Mrs Bailey had diabetes; her son had no known comorbidities"
I really wonder about us and our powers of observation. No known comorbidities? The son was overweight. There seems to be a relationship between excess weight and this disease. I noticed it in the pics posted of persons who died in the US as well. I do not mean to imply that a person with normal weight can't be adversely affected but weight seems pretty prevalent. Others are thinking the same, I posted data from a study 2 weeks ago(?) explaining why overweight people might be susceptible to adverse outcomes.
whogothere 2 years, 8 months ago
Bingo my thoughts exactly... Obesity is the elephant in the room. Limiting the rights of those that are obese (in the same manner of those that are unvaccinated) would likely have more effect that current government policy. Of course will never happen but just another indication of how un-rooted in science current regulations are. This has always been an disease that effects the vulnerable - old, obese and already sick - vaccinated the whole of society is not the answer and likely to bring more variants to fore that if natural immunity was acquired - eg India, Nepal.
M0J0 2 years, 8 months ago
i wonder why they dont push the fully vaccinated deaths
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 8 months ago
Israel has reported deaths in fully vaccinated individuals. They are of course in lower numbers than unvaccinated.
Theres no debate from me on whether the vaccines helped today. I dont know about tomorrow, nobody does, thats pretty clear as they bring forward changes from new information every few weeks.
What I am saying is can we for once stop getting caught on the wrong foot? Can we get ahead of the game? Can we look at data from everywhere, examine trends and plan ahead for what we might face in another 6 months? If it never happens great, if it does we're prepared.
The situation in country today was completely avoidable. We could have looked at our own data and seen the outcome of opening a border without sensible controls but we did it anyway and now people dropping like flies. Its unacceptable. Unacceptable. Our reckless money grubbing uncaring decisions killed people. Ignoring the true cause of this spike and blaming the unvaccinated leaves room for Dr Minnis and Renward Wells to make the same mistakes over and over again.
torymagnum 2 years, 8 months ago
They do publish them in the US and UK.. less than 0.002 % of the fully vaccinated have died. And all had severe comorbidities Read facts before you state something
torymagnum 2 years, 8 months ago
Other diseases where one vaccine needed to prevent illness and spread of disease: SMALL POX, POLIO, measles, hepatitis and the list goes on!
And yes, the US and UK publish # deaths of fully vaccinated against covid: less than 0.002% !!! And they have very bad co-morbitidies!
DWW 2 years, 8 months ago
WOW, we got a lot of armchair PhDs, MDs and full on false prophets in this garbage stream today. WOW WOW WOW. Take your shot and shut up silly pants.
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 8 months ago
Its a free world and a free comment area. Anybody can say what they want, even garbage, as long as its doesnt break the Tribune's rules. In fact! I bet the Tribune loves garbage posts!! those are the threads that garner the most interaction and that means advertising dollars. lol.
Nobody has to take a shot if they dont want to. Stop with the harassment. It would be wise to get vaccinated it would also be wise to accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour but you dont see anybody bashing the atheists. They have free will. Your message would be better received if people thought you respected them. Nobody is going to warm up to listen or adhere to hate.
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