JUST a week after losing a theatre technician, staff members at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) are now mourning the death of a registered nurse who died on Friday night.

The nurse, 31-year-old Dominique Stevens, worked in the hospital’s Accident and Emergency Unit.

Yesterday, Nurses’ Association of Jamaica (NAJ) President Patsy Edwards Henry told the Jamaica Observer that it was not quite clear whether Stevens’ death was COVID-19-related, but noted that she had underlying illnesses, including diabetes.

“…She was screened for the novel coronavirus but the results are not back as yet,” said Edwards Henry, pointing out that the nurse was fully vaccinated against the virus.

According to the NAJ president, the nurse passed away some time after 10:00 pm.

“It would be the time between the ending of the shift at 10:00 pm because she came in on the afternoon shift. I didn’t get the time of pronouncement, but what I understand is that she came in when the evening shift persons were still there and then the night shift persons came on and they also participated in resuscitation attempts [when she fell ill],” she explained.

Her colleagues, Edwards Henry said, are devastated. She and other officials of the NAJ spent most of Saturday morning with them until afternoon, trying to offer some psychosocial support.

“Grief counselling has started. When I went to KPH yesterday, everybody was in tears. They were saying she was like the life of the party, she was jovial, she was fun, she was strict, she was patient,” she said.

“The hospital deals with adults, but when they have emergencies with babies she is the one who takes the babies to Bustamante Hospital for Children and cares for them. She was always smiling. Those were some of the accolades that her colleagues poured on her yesterday,” she added.

A KPH staff member, who declined to give his name, shared similar sentiments about Stevens.

“I didn’t work with her directly, but we would say hi and bye to each other. But, she was a very pleasant person based on the interactions we had,” he said.

On September 25, Rachael Edwards, a 41-year-old theatre technician at the KPH, died after experiencing complications associated with COVID-19.

In August, the nursing fraternity lost 37-year-old Diagrea Davis-Cunningham, who led the nursing team at Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Unit.