hotel later announced it was closing<\/a>\u00a0after two guests tested positive for COVID-19.<\/p>\n\u201cI was at the epicenter of where it broke out in Aspen,\u201d he recounted to VOA.<\/p>\n
Gavidia rushed his family home to Jupiter, Florida, but it was too late. First his wife began showing COVID-19 symptoms. Two days later, in mid-March, he was ill, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never been this sick, ever \u2013 the fever, the headaches, it just won\u2019t go away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018I didn\u2019t know if I\u2019d see them again\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\nOn March 21, Gavidia called 911 from his cellphone. He could not catch his breath. Fearing COVID-19, the EMTs refused to come inside the house. Gavidia was forced to walk outside and stand in the middle of the street.<\/p>\n
He said goodbye to his family and his wife, thinking he might never see them again. Gavidia said he\u2019d heard about coronavirus patients who \u201cdie by themselves because they’re contagious — so when I’m saying goodbye to my wife, I thought that could be it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gavidia tested positive for COVID-19 in the hospital and was sent home to quarantine. By this time, his entire family was battling fevers. All four lost their sense of taste and smell. But his symptoms and suffering are the most severe.<\/p>\n
Experimental meds<\/strong><\/p>\nGavidia\u2019s doctor suggested he try an anti-malarial medication that reportedly showed promise in some patients but has not been approved as a COVID-19 treatment. \u201cA lot of people don\u2019t want to prescribe it because it\u2019s not approved or tested yet,\u201d Gavidia said, “but I got it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In our next installment, we share the extraordinary lengths Gavidia went through to secure an unproven drug and find out if he is improving on the medication.<\/p>\n
\u2018We just don\u2019t feel right\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\nZack Armstrong<\/strong>
\nAge:<\/strong>\u00a029
\nOccupation:<\/strong>\u00a0Technical Recruiting Manager
\nCity:<\/strong>\u00a0Arlington, Virginia<\/p>\nZack Armstrong handed his active, soccer-playing roommate his cellphone to call 911. The roommate, 27, could not lift his arm to grasp the phone. That\u2019s when Armstrong knew something was horribly wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was shortly after he got to the hospital that we got a text. He tested positive for COVID,\u201d Armstrong said.<\/p>\n
Now Armstrong, another roommate and their two girlfriends are experiencing symptoms while the original roommate remains hospitalized on a ventilator. The four have not been tested but are presumed to be infected with the coronavirus. Sequestered in a three-bedroom apartment, they are experiencing moderate symptoms so far: upset stomach, headaches, shortness of breath and dry coughs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get coughing spells typically in the evening,” Armstrong said, adding that he takes acetaminophen and cold medicine.<\/p>\n
While the four are cooped up with nothing to do but wait, outside the apartment an army of health officials, specialized workers and friends has mobilized.<\/p>\n
The Arlington County Health Department checks in with them twice daily and asks about fevers and symptoms.<\/p>\n
Nurses recoiling in fear<\/strong><\/p>\nLambert said nurses backed away \u201clike I was glowing or something\u201d as she was wheeled past them in the hallway. Hospital workers tried to admit her after swabbing her for the test, but she insisted on self-quarantining herself at home.<\/p>\n
One of her roommates, Jane, helps her sit up in bed and to use a walker. Lambert said she has trouble swallowing and has been sapped of energy. While not experiencing high fevers, she said, her body gets uncomfortably warm.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy neck is red. Face gets red,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
VOA – WASHINGTON – Much has been written of the warning signs, symptoms and dangers of COVID-19. But what is it like to live through an active infection? Three sufferers agreed to share their stories, day-by-day medical conditions, thoughts and observations with VOA in this first installment of a bi-weekly series chronicling life with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":83627,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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