The Coleman family, including mum Tracey and daughter Charis, pictured, have all been at home on doctor’s orders for the past week with suspected swine flu. (Picture by Tom Tardif, 0874086)
A FAMILY of five who were quarantined for a week because of suspected swine flu say there is not enough advice available.
Tracey and Andy Coleman, their two daughters Charis, 10, Clara, 14, and son Louis, 12, have spent the last week at home, unable to go out.
Mr Coleman, 43, returned to work yesterday, Charis and Clara are back in school today but Louis cannot return until Monday.
Mrs Coleman, 46, said that throughout the week the family had found that there was not enough help available.
‘Look at how many children are ill now. Why wasn’t any information put in place prior to this?
‘We could have had something sent home from the schools saying what the symptoms are,’ she said.
Mrs Coleman said she was not surprised the flu-like illness had spread.
‘There should have been leaflets in surgeries, shops and the library so that when things started happening we could have gone through the proper channels.’
She said that from the family’s point of view, they had nowhere to turn so they had to go to the doctor. They had been charged for phone calls to accident and emergency.
Mrs Coleman said that if people were diagnosed early, at their most contagious, Tamiflu could limit the effects. She added that until Tuesday, there had been no strict policy on how long to keep children off school. ‘We were in the dark about what procedures to follow. Maybe if people were advised early on, it might have prevented the spread being so rampant.’
Each family member contracted the virus after Charis became ill on Monday of last week. They phoned the hospital for advice and were told that she could receive Tamiflu if she came to hospital. They decided not to go, but Charis got worse and Mrs Coleman became ill and collapsed the day after.
Mr Coleman took his wife to hospital, where she received Tamiflu, but he subsequently became ill and the whole family paid a visit to the doctor where they each received the anti-viral drug.
The family, who had been put in a separate room during their visit, were told to stay at home by the doctor.
‘When I asked whether I could get some milk, he said no, just go home,’ said Mrs Coleman.
‘I don’t know whether it was because it was the whole lot of us [that had it] that the doctor told us to go home.’
Mrs Coleman said she had not heard of any other family in the same situation. They have been tested for swine flu, but are still awaiting the results.
Article posted on 19th November, 2009 - 2.29pm
12 Article Comments
“Why wasn’t any information put in place prior to this?” – Where have you been for the past 8 or 9 months? The information has been out there for months on what the symptoms are.
“There should have been leaflets in surgeries” – there are. There is also an abundant amount of information on places such as the NHS website.
Why do people insist on being spoon fed information, how about using a bit of initiative as a responsible parent and researching the information yourself.
“Mrs Coleman said she was not surprised the flu-like illness had spread” – yes because people continue to ignore the advice of NOT going to the hospital or the doctors surgery, when suffering flu symptoms just like Mrs Coleman did.
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There’s always the chance that Mrs. Coleman’s comments have been, er, “edited” by the Press to support their own Agenda and have a bash at HSSD?
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I am really amazed about this flu situation. My family have had flu but have been far too ill to go to the doctor, did not need to call one out as we knew what to do. Bed rest, plenty to drink and tablets. It works. Ok, no housework done, no laundry done etc but we managed. All better now. Simply really – common sense needs to be applied.
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HD
This has been reported quite accurately, it showed them on TV last night being interviewed via mobile phone. Mrs.C in her pyjamas, behind a glass door. I can’t think of when the whole subject of swine flu hasn’t been reported daily by the media for the last year, have they not got access to the internet? When did people stop thinking and acting for themselves?
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Agree with the above posters. I find it hard to believe someone could say there is a lack of information. Where have they been for the majority of 2009?
Comments like “Look at how many children are ill now. Why wasn’t any information put in place prior to this?” are just embarrassing.
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It does seem rather odd that this one family should have been put in quarantine while many others who also have swine flu have not?
What concerns me more is that, despite promises that Guernsey would be one of the first places to receive swine flu vaccinations they haven’t actually started administering them yet.
There are many very vulnerable people out there with underlying medical conditions whose lives are at risk if they become infected. I understand the vaccine has been in the island for some time – why haven’t the high risk groups had their jabs yet?
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CD – vaccinations for swine flu started two weeks ago (i was one of the first) and healthcare workers and people with underlying health problems are currently being vaccinated (though there is quite a wait for appointments at the moment)
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To reply to CD’s comment regarding Swine flu vaccination.
The surgeries received their vaccines from the UK just 2 weeks ago.We received the vaccine at a similar time to the South West Region in England,and had no prior right to earlier deliveries compared to other regions.
All the GP surgeries are running clinics as often as possible and including the weekends and evenings. They are concentrating on those patients ,where experience from Australia’s winter Pandemic shows,are more likely to be admitted or need intensive care. Unusally, for Swine flu, this is not necessarily the elderly, but pregnant women and children/young adults with certain medical conditions.Also immuno compromised patients are being targeted first. As time and resources allow the age groups being invited for their vaccine rises.Letters or a phone invitation are being used to contact patients.
Dr Bridgeman has written in the Guernsey Press that if you feel you are one of the higher risk patients, and have not yet received an invitation for the vaccine, to contact your doctor’s surgery.
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I agree with most of the comment above, but I am somewhat puzzled to the final paragraph of the article above which states that the family had nowhere to go, so they had to go to the Doctor.
That must have been a really difficult decision to make, eh.
Also, they had been charged for phone calls to accident and emergency.
That really says it all.
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This family have done themselves no favours with this article – there has been endless amounts of information available if they’d bothered to look at it. I also recall it said in the article that was published that when swine flu was first suspected, they were told to go and get the jab….but didn’t bother!! And now they’re all ill – you reap what you sow.
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I think the press are at fault here for sensationalist reporting. The family ‘quarantined’ looked as fit as fiddles, smiling and giving interviews in their pyjamas behind glass doors! The information on swine flu has been in the news for months and there is an abundance of information available on the tv, papers, internet, leaflets in doctors surgeries and chemists etc. Swine flu is also milder than normal flu unless people have other conditions. My friend was offered tamiflu as she is diabetic but the doctor did tell her she could get nasty side effects from the anti-viral drugs – so she decided not to take them. She was unwell for a couple of days and then felt fine.
The schools are going completely over the top. My child was sent home with a runny nose (no other symptoms and felt fine) – they told me that i had to keep him home for a week to ensure that germs were not spread! He doesn’t have flu – he has a cold! Of course he thinks it is great but I have had to take some time off work to look after him and i am not keeping him off for a week – what happens if/when he really does get swine ‘flu, as i will have to take more time off (unpaid).
What about some useful facts: like how many people have been hospitalised, how many really did have swine flu etc.
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Why did they need quarantine when they already appear to live in a bubble?
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