Abstract
Where a home caregiver who provides care to a child with severe motor and intellectual disabilities (SMID) is infected with novel coronavirus (coronavirus) and cannot provide relevant care, who should provide care including medical care to the child, who is identified as having close contact to the infected person, has become a significant issue. We had a difficulty in handling a patient who was found to have had close contact to a coronavirus infected person after being admitted to our center for short stay (SS) and thus herein report this case. A patient was a 55-year-old male with SMID. The patient had cerebral palsy with epilepsy secondary to severe asphyxia and was receiving care at home. As the patient's father aged 83 years (dementia) and mother felt sick, emergency SS was requested. After admission to our center, the patient was identified as having close contact to a coronavirus infected person because a home-care worker was found to be infected with coronavirus. After that, the patient's mother was found to have coronavirus pneumonia. We asked the administrative agency and public health center of Osaka City for advice and requested them for transfer of the patient to medical institution, but the transfer was difficult because the patient' s PCR test was negative. We used a private room with negative-pressure equipment in our center and set up temporary zoning to continue monitoring of the patient. Eventually, isolation was released after 11-day isolation, and the patient was uneventfully discharged. The handling of similar cases under the coronavirus crisis should be discussed with the administrative agency in the future.
