Coronavirus: 'I didn't want her dying on her own'

Summary

Siobhan Brammeld is a care worker at Massereene Manor care home in County Antrim and leads the social care team. She has sat with several residents as they passed away having contracted COVID-19. In this interview with BBC News NI she says she was convinced some residents had "died before their time".

"I feel as though I am on autopilot - it never leaves my head. Sometimes I worry that I could have done more," she said. "These are sad times, scary times too," she added.

Siobhan told BBC News that staff felt not enough was done to prepare them for the pandemic and that workers like her were left to the side. "I feel we were left on our own. We as workers were forgotten about as well as the wee residents," she said.

"At the start of all this I just wanted to scream at somebody - could someone please come and help these wee residents? I just didn't want them to die before their time."

"I watched what was happening in other countries and you knew it was coming, but there didn't seem to be an awful lot happening to prepare us."