5 days later: Local family loses uncle to COVID-19

MOSES LAKE — He was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, a devout Christian, a member of a bowling league and a cancer survivor. He and his wife had just returned to their Tri-Cities home from a six-month trip across the country. With spring on its way, he would soon be able to resume work on his immaculately landscaped yard, or play outside with the pets he adored.

At 75, Fred, whose family has asked that his last name not be used out of respect for their privacy, died earlier this month in a Tri-Cities-area hospital after contracting the novel coronavirus, said Annette, a Moses Lake resident and Fred’s niece-in-law.

The disease had progressed quickly. Fred had gone for a regular check-up at a Seattle hospital just two weeks earlier, and his diagnosis was good. He was in fine health for a man of his age, Annette said.

But by Sunday, he started experiencing cold-like symptoms. He called his doctor, who told him to check himself into the emergency room, just in case he had been infected by the virus that was thought to be sweeping through the state and country.

Once in the hospital, workers acted with caution, assuming Fred had been sickened with the novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19. They immediately placed him under isolation to prevent the virus from spreading to other patients and staff, Annette said. He had pneumonia, a complication associated with severe cases of the virus, and a sample was sent to a state lab to determine if in fact he had been sickened by COVID-19.

By Monday, Fred was unable to breathe on his own, and a tube was placed in his airway, hooking him up to a machine that would pump air into his lungs.

By Thursday, four days after the test had been sent away, the results came back positive, proof that Fred had contracted the novel coronavirus.

But the news did little to change the final outcome. By Friday, at 2:11 p.m., Fred had died.

Worse than just losing a loved one, Fred’s family had been unable to be by his bedside during his final moments. His family had not seen him since he had been admitted to the hospital five days earlier, due to visitor restrictions put into place at hospitals across the nation. His wife, Candy, who also had some cold-like symptoms, had self-isolated at home, Annette said.

“Absolutely nobody, because of the quarantine, nobody could be with my aunt, nobody could be at the hospital with my uncle,” Annette said. “That’s the time family should be together, but because of this, no family has been together to mourn, to console.”

“It’s very hard, it’s odd, really,” she continued. “Last time we saw him, he was perfectly fine. But it just takes somebody so fast.”

Unable to be with her aunt in person during her two-week long isolation, Annette said the family has been making contact with Candy through Facebook. But she wishes she could do more.

“It just breaks my heart knowing she’s been stuck home alone,” Annette said. “No family, nothing.”

There has been no talk yet about a funeral, Annette said, and it’s unclear to the family whether one will even be allowed. Just Saturday, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee issued new directives to funeral homes allowing only immediate family members to attend funerals and only if they stand six feet apart. It’s unclear whether this provision, as so many others in recent weeks, will change in the near future.

As of Tuesday, only one Grant County resident had died after contracting the novel coronavirus. But some families like Annette’s have lost loved ones residing elsewhere in the state and country. Carolann Gann, a former Moses Lake resident who had moved to Issaquah, died last week at age 75 after being sickened with COVID-19, according to an obituary submitted to the Herald.

It’s unclear where Fred contracted the virus. To Annette, that uncertainty is a reminder of the responsibility the public has to take the current crisis seriously and prevent the unseen spread of the virus, particularly to someone vulnerable to its effects.

“I would say, take this seriously,” Annette said. “There are people out there whose immune systems can’t handle the germs, so do your part to stop the spread of the virus. He was a healthy man, but, somewhere, he caught the virus, and it killed him in five days.”

Emry Dinman can be reached via email at edinman@columbiabasinherald.com.