'I'm just going through a lot': Manitoba woman speaks out after losing three family members to COVID-19

(File photo)

A Manitoba woman is speaking out after she lost three members of her family to COVID-19 – her sister, brother-in-law, and her brother.

“I’m just going through a lot right now,” said Lisa Sinclair in an interview on Wednesday.

Back in May, Sinclair lost both her sister and her brother-in-law to the virus. She said her brother-in-law died on May 3 and her sister on May 16.

“This is a husband and wife that passed away,” she said.

Then on Saturday, Jan. 15, her brother Roy got sick with a fever and shortness of breath. He drove from Lake St. Martin First Nation to Winnipeg for a check-up at the St. James Clinic, where they called an ambulance that took him to Grace Hospital. Roy was unvaccinated. 

“They put him in the emergency room, they gave him an IV and oxygen. And they gave him a COVID test and it came back positive,” Sinclair said.

Sinclair said while her brother was hospitalized, he called to tell her that he wasn’t getting enough attention from the staff.

“What the nurses were doing there, they weren’t attending to him. He had phoned me at 3:30 in the morning to tell me that he rang the buzzer three times, two times and nobody would show up,” she said.

Then on Tuesday, Sinclair learned that her brother was found on the floor of the hospital room just before he died.

She said this has left her family with many questions surrounding Roy’s death.

“How come they never attended to him while he wanted them? He wanted the nurse. That’s our question. How come they found him on the floor and how long was he there?”

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said it does not provide public comment on the care of individual cases. 

Sinclair noted Roy was a carpenter and a jack-of-all-trades.

“He did everything. He had a new house. He cooked, cleaned,” she said.

She said she’s going to miss spending time and travelling around with her brother.

“We travelled all over together. We went to church services, to Winnipeg. That’s what I’m going to miss, him coming over to have coffee, to visit,” she said.

Sinclair said she is going through a lot after losing so many family members in such a short time.

“That’s really tough on me right now,” she said.

SEVEN COVID-19 DEATHS AMONG INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN PAST WEEK

Roy is one of seven Indigenous people who died of COVID-19 over the past week.

The deaths come as First Nations in Manitoba continue to see a disproportionate effect from the virus.

"Consistently we've been trending around 40 per cent in the ICU, so that is considerably disproportionate based on our population of the province," said Melanie MacKinnon, with the Manitoba First Nations COVID-19 Pandemic Response Coordination Team.

As of Thursday morning, the PRCT said there were 1,900 new COVID-19 cases in the Indigenous population over the past week; 156 were hospitalized with 18 in the ICU.

The team said the case counts are misleading as people who test positive on rapid tests don't have to report their results. However, the team is working to get a better idea of the virus' spread.

"There was a request put out to communities and individuals who have received rapid antigen tests and that have come back positive to report on those directly to their nursing stations or health centres," said Leona Star, Manitoba First Nations COVID-19 Pandemic Response Coordination Team.

In response, the team has tripled its rapid response team roster, and added surge support along with vaccination teams.