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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 10, 2022)
NORTHEASTERN OREGON Thursday, February 10, 2022 East Oregonian A7 Family disputes OHA COVID-19 death report By RONALD BOND Wallowa County Chieftain SALEM — The family of a Wallowa County woman who died in December is disputing an Oregon Health Authority report that COVID-19 had anything to do with her death. “Defi nitely not a COVID death,” said Josh Barnett, a Salem resident, of his mother, Theresa Malec, a former resident of Wallowa. Malec died at Barnett’s home in Salem on Dec. 15, 2021, about two weeks after being diagnosed with liver cancer, Barnett said. Barnett said there was a delay in the processing of her death certif- icate, and when he received it, he had some suspicion that her death might be called a COVID-19-re- lated death. On Jan. 27, OHA reported the death of a 70-year-old Wallowa County woman in its daily COVID- 19 report. It said the woman died on Dec. 15 after a positive test on Aug. 4. While OHA does not provide names on its report — and declined to confi rm to the Chieftain if the death it reported was indeed Malec — Barnett said it’s not too diffi cult to make the assumption the death in the report was his mother. COVID-19, though, was not what killed her, he said, and the death certifi cate, which he provided to the Chieftain, shows that. Contracted COVID-19, but defeated it Barnett said his mother — who earlier in the year had defeated breast cancer before the unexpected liver cancer diagnosis — did indeed have COVID-19 in early August, but healed up only a couple days after receiving treatment. “She got ivermectin and the (monoclonal antibody) infusion therapy. She was tired for a couple, three days,” he said. Unprompted, Barnett also said Malec had not been vaccinated. “She didn’t want to be vacci- nated, but she did fi ght it naturally. She pulled through,” he said. After overcoming COVID-19, Barnett said his mom returned to much of her normal activities and had been driving weekly to Walla Josh Barnett/Contributed Photo The death certifi cate for Theresa Malec of Wallowa County lists the causes of her death. Her son, Josh Barnett provided the certifi cate and gave the Wallowa County Chieftain permission to run the above portion of the doc- ument. He asserts the Oregon Health Authority wrongly listed his mother as a victim of COVID-19. this on a death certifi cate, ever,” he said. “I had that feeling.” His feeling was confirmed on Jan. 27 when OHA reported the 70-year-old Wallowa County woman’s death, which the Chief- tain reported later that day. Barnett reached out the following day seek- ing to clarify the details. Walla for treatment of her breast cancer before defeating it. “They had given her the all clear on the breast cancer,” he said. A new diagnosis He said his mom sounded “really tired, winded,” in a phone conversa- tion with her Nov. 29. The next day, she was in the emergency room in Enterprise, originally given a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, Barnett said. An emergency aircraft fl ew her that night to Walla Walla, where it was determined, instead, the diagnosis was liver cancer. She also initially tested posi- tive for COVID-19 while at Walla Walla, Barnett said, but that posi- tive test was followed by two nega- tive tests for the coronavirus — the second about a week later — which enabled Barnett to get into the hospital to visit her. Barnett eventually took Malec to his Salem home where she was put on hospice and died about a week later. The death certifi cate The text on the death certifi- cate made Barnett wonder if Malec would be classifi ed as a COVID-19 death. The certifi cate — Barnett gave Seeking answers Josh Barnett/Contributed Photo Theresa Malec, a former Wallowa resident, died Dec. 15, 2021. Her family believes she is listed as a COVID-19-related death in Wal- lowa County, and is refuting the Oregon Health Authority’s report. the Chieftain permission to publish the information in it — lists cardiac arrest, respiratory arrest and liver cell carcinoma as the causes of death. Below that, it lists anxiety and breast cancer as signifi cant condi- tions contributing to death. Next to those, it states: “history of covid 19 (2 negative tests).” The funeral home that worked with Barnett said it had “never seen Barnett said OHA was not forthcoming on details in an email response to his brother, Ty, who also had been seeking answers. The OHA told the Chieftain it could not comment specifi cally on if Malec was listed as a COVID-19- related death, and that it “cannot provide any specific informa- tion related to a person’s death or death certifi cate,” according to Tim Heider, OHA public information offi cer. That’s because Oregon restricts access to death records for 50 years after the date of death. OHA also reported it generally does not discuss anyone’s personal record, even if the agency were able to access them. The OHA did confirm to Ty Barnett in an email Josh Barnett shared with the Chieftain that it does use the phrase “COVID-19- related deaths” and that it could mean a person who had COVID-19 died, but that it wasn’t necessarily the cause. “The deaths we report each day include people who died with COVID-like symptoms, which in some cases means that a person did not necessarily die as a result of COVID-19. Sometimes public health cannot determine (the) exact cause of death, so our data focuses on people who most likely or defi - nitely had COVID-19 and died, based on local reports,” the email stated. The OHA’s Investigative Guide- lines state that any of the following are considered a COVID-19-related death: • “Death of a confi rmed or prob- able COVID-19 case within 60 days of the earliest available date among exposure to a confi rmed case, onset of symptoms, or date of specimen collection for the fi rst positive test; • “Death from any cause in a hospitalized person during their hospital stay or in the 60 days following discharge and a COVID-19-positive laboratory diagnostic test at any time since 14 days prior to hospitalization; or • “Death of someone with a COVID-19-specifi c ICD-10 code listed as a primary or contributing to it.” Josh Barnett believes the numbers are infl ated, and points to the fact that individuals who die directly from COVID-19 or die of a diff erent cause (but have COVID- 19) are counted together. “They’ve already admitted there is a diff erence (between) dying from COVID and dying with COVID,” he said. “I think they’ve been confl at- ing the two on purpose to make the numbers look as bad as they can. “I don’t believe the state has been giving the right answers for a long time.” As for his family, he said he wants the truth — whatever it ends up being. “I just want the record straight in terms of being honest,” he said. “...I don’t want my family or anybody else’s to be used, not as a pawn, but as ‘chalk up another line to it.’ I know that OHA is saying it’s a COVID death when I was there the whole time. 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