BELIZE CITY, Wed. Apr. 29, 2020– Some strange things have been known to happen at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH), but what recently happened to a senior citizen who went to the hospital for treatment is particularly disturbing.

Jean Hyde was rushed to the KHMH Emergency Room by ambulance on Friday morning, April 24.

Later Friday, We found the 67-year-old Hyde in the EKG area of the Emergency Room. She was stretched out on a bed; her face, like the faces of everyone else in the hospital, was covered with a mask, according to protocol established by the hospital in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

From behind the mask, Hyde explained to us that she is a diabetic and suffers from a heart condition. She said that she also has a back infection for which she has been seeing a doctor.

Hyde explained that she first went to the hospital on Monday morning, April 20. The doctor who initially treated her told her that they would admit her for three days.

Hyde said that when she went to the hospital, she had a high fever and felt weak as a result of being unable to eat.

Sometime around 10:00 p.m., on Monday, April 20, the doctor who had told Hyde that they would admit her for a couple of days came to her bed, and he was speaking to two other doctors, Hyde explained.

“They were speaking in their language and I did not understand what they were saying,” Hyde said.

As far as Hyde was concerned, she had been admitted to the hospital because she was even provided with a wristband and was already in bed when the doctors came.

One of the doctors told her that they were discharging her, Hyde said.

“I told the doctor that there is no taxi outside,” Hyde said.

“Did you also tell them that there was a curfew that had already started?” we asked Hyde.
“I did not have to tell them that, because they know,” Hyde replied.

Hyde said she walked out the hospital and by the time she reached in front of Pallotti High School, two policemen in a vehicle asked her what she was doing on the street.

“I showed the policemen my wristband and told them that I was just released from the hospital. I asked them if they could give me a lift home, but they told me that they don’t go on George Street,” she explained.

After walking across the Belcan Bridge, Hyde said, she met another police vehicle.  It was the same story. The cops wanted to know what she was doing on the street. She explained that she had just been discharged from the hospital and was walking to her home on George Street.

The officers also informed her that they don’t go on George Street and left her to continue her journey.

The officers in the third police vehicle that Hyde met were more understanding, and they took her home.

Hyde told us that she lives with her husband, Lincoln Dumont, 72.

“My husband has a broken foot and he can’t walk,” Hyde said.

Hyde explained that since she was discharged from the hospital on Monday night, she had to be taken back there two times. She called us today to say that she was released from the KHMH yesterday, and that she had contracted dengue fever.

Feature photo: Jean Hyde