Carlos Garcia was the first.
The 45-year-old Moreno Valley man, a guard at the Chino men’s prison, was the first person in Riverside County to be hospitalized with the novel coronavirus at a Kaiser facility, on March 19.
Doctors and nurses put him in isolation — where he talked by phone with his family when he had the strength, but mostly rested, too tired even to watch TV, for 12 days — as they raced to find the right treatment. IV fluids helped, but not enough. Antibiotics didn’t work. Hydroxychloroquine didn’t work.
“He got the virus in the beginning when it was just coming to light, so now we know more about it,” said his wife, Amanda. “But, after him being there a week and a half, we honestly thought he was going to pass away.”
Doctors tried an antiviral medication that has since become widely used to treat COVID-19, and within 48 hours his breathing was less labored, Amanda said.
“Remsdesivir saved a good life,” she said.
Garcia was at Kaiser Permanente Moreno Valley Medical Center from March 19 until March 31, he said, and in doing so became one of the first to recover — joining a group that includes more than 5,000 people in Riverside County as of Friday, June 5.
The caring and diligent treatment from doctors and nurses saved his life, he said.
But “recovered” doesn’t mean “back to normal.”
More than two months after leaving the hospital, Garcia said his exercise is limited to brisk walking. He still can’t return to work.
“Being a peace officer, you’ve got to be at full strength,” he said.
Hospitalization cost Garcia 20 pounds, but now he’s back to his original weight of 200 pounds.
He doesn’t have any other risk factors for COVID-19, he says.
“I normally don’t get sick and I have no medical history, so as soon as I got this, I had a hunch,” he said. “It started out like a cold, then the worst cold I’ve ever had. I had a fever over 100 — up to 103 — that wouldn’t break. Complete body aches, cough. Then I had trouble breathing and that’s when I knew it was time to go to the ER.”
The California Institution for Men in Chino, where Garcia thinks he caught the coronavirus, has had at least 12 prisoners die of the disease. No deaths are recorded at other state prisons as of Friday, though at least two prison employees have died.
The state prison tracker shows 471 prisoners have the coronavirus as of Friday, while another 14 positive patients were released and 205 cases are resolved.
Garcia said he thinks the prison is doing the best it can with the situation, although he can’t discuss specifics because of security concerns.
“It’s a tough situation when you take into consideration the safety and security of the institution, of the inmates, of the staff,” he said. “They’re in close confinement. Their hands are almost tied, to a sense.”
Garcia knows people who have had mild cases of COVID-19, but he warns people that it can be a near-death experience, even for those who show up on tracking numbers as recovered.
“Take the potential threat of the virus seriously,” he said. “Some people, if it doesn’t affect people they know, they take it lightly. But you never know what might happen.”
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June 06, 2020 at 10:00PM
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2 months after recovery, Moreno Valley coronavirus patient thankful, still weak - Press-Enterprise
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