https://nypost.com/2020/03/30/bronx-...ore-collected/
A Bronx woman who died of suspected coronavirus complications was left to rot in her bed for more than 24 hours before inundated city officials came to pick up her body ? while her distraught family huddled in their car, they told The Post.
Caridad Santiago, a 43-year old MTA cleaner, was discovered dead by her 16-year-old daughter on Sunday afternoon after experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 including trouble breathing, fever, cough and loss of taste for about a week.
?She?s been in the bed dead since then and nobody has come to take care of it. She?s still in the same place,? the teen, Crystal Puertos-Salaam, said Monday afternoon, shortly before the city Medical Examiner?s office finally arrived to take the body around 3:30 p.m.
Crystal and her father, Ernesto Salaam, said EMS and NYPD detectives initially responded to the Claremont Village home Sunday around 1 p.m. ? but the cops wouldn?t even go in to the room where the mom was.
?The detectives ?. made my daughter go in to check on the body because they were scared,? Salaam said.
?The police sent her in there to take pictures while they stood outside, saying they didn?t have the proper equipment to go in there. But why jeopardize my child? She?s only 16 years old.?
Fearing their home was infected, Crystal, her two sisters, brother and father slept in their van overnight, desperately trying to find help.
His wife, a cleaner assigned to the MTA Stations Department in the Bronx, had called out sick last Monday and was unable to get through to the the agency?s overloaded hotline for employees.
She called again on Tuesday, to no avail, said Salaam.
?She knew she was sick and she was trying to reach out and they didn?t reach out to her,? he said.
His wife then called her doctor, who only had availability to see her on Monday. She called 311 and the hotline at least twice more before her death.
?She was really really bad and she was coughing and having trouble breathing. She called the hotline and they weren?t helpful. She didn?t think she was going to make it because she thinks she had it,? Crystal said.
The MTA on Monday afternoon announced Caridad?s death, saying she passed of coronavirus complications. She was never officially tested or diagnosed with COVID-19.
The dad and teen daughter spent Monday placing dozens of calls to 911 and 311 for information on what to do with the body before the ME finally came to pick her up.
?When [an ME official] got here he said ?I?m sorry it took so long, I know this one was on the docket for a while,? ? Salaam said.
Had officials not shown up, Salaam, a trucker, said he had planned to wrap his wife?s body in a blanket and drive her to Bellevue Hospital. himself.
?She shouldn?t be in there for that long,? he said. ?She?s an MTA worker, she works for the city.?
Law enforcement sources said the ME?s office is overrun due to the ever-mounting death toll from the virus outbreak. There have been instances of 12 to 14 hour waits for corpses to be recovered ? although 24 hours was atypical, sources said.
A city source said the cops? decision not to enter the room meant information was missing from their report to the ME, ?slowing the process down? for retrieving the body.
?NYPD procedure was not followed in this case and the matter is under internal review,? police spokeswoman Sergeant Mary Frances O?Donnell said in a statement.
?We understand these are difficult times and we will continue to revisit our policies during this epidemic.?
Mayor Bill de Blasio told NY1 Monday night that Caridad?s death ?is a very, very painful example? of the toll the crisis has taken on New Yorkers.
?I feel so bad for that family what they went through,? Hizzoner said. ?Just the loss alone, let alone having to be put through a horrible situation.?
A police source said that detectives often won?t approach the body of a possible coronavirus victim for fear the disease could still be transmitted.
?They aren?t going to go into a room if a person who died of the virus is in there. They have to protect themselves,? the source said, adding that not all detectives have adequate personal protection.
As of Monday, 824 officers in NYPD were confirmed to have the virus and 106 civilian members.
The city has been so overwhelmed that mobile morgues have been set up outside hospitals. FEMA is now sending in refrigerated trucks to help.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Nic B
