FORT WORTH, Texas — Brent Carr had COVID-19 in late March. His wife Lesli had it a week later.
“It’s not the flu,” Brent said.
“No. It’s absolutely not the flu,” Leslie followed up.
Brent had just about every symptom except for shortness of breath. Lesli was on the verge of being hospitalized because of low oxygen and shaking chills every day.
“My daughter reminded me today, she was crying every day how sick I was,” Lesli Carr said.
“Did thoughts of her being in the hospital and being seriously compromised and dying cross my mind?" Brent said. “It absolutely did.”
Corey Ripe ended up on a ventilator in a coma in mid-April.
“I didn’t really know how bad it was,” he said. “ I thought it was just the flu.”
His fiancé, Jena Parris, remember he just took a nap and woke up unable to breathe.
“You could literally hear fluid in his lungs,” she said. “It was like he was drowning.”
We’ve learned many new lessons about COVID-19.
Every COVID-19 hospitalization is a person and a story, and across the state that number is up 55 percent since Memorial Day as more people go out to bars, restaurants, parties and protests.
There’s fear in the weeks to come deaths may follow the same pattern.
“That is absolutely our concern. Everything is sequential in COVID-19,” said Dr. Mark Casanova, the president of the Dallas County Medical Society.
He says bed space should be looked at regionally. North Texas has filled a little more than 75 percent of its 12,528 beds, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. The Houston area is in worse shape, with about 250 remaining ICU beds.
“Yes, we’re OK in North Texas, but OK is not great,” Casanova said.
He believes the rise in hospitalizations and cases is partly preventable with just masks and distancing.
“It’s frankly disheartening,” he said. “It’s worrisome.”
It’s not clear yet if people become immune, so even the Carrs still wear masks.
“I think you have to err on the side of caution and it’s the right thing to do,” Brent Carr said.
There were 701 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in North Texas Monday, according to state numbers. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said the county set a record Monday with 400 people hospitalized.
“We do need to live but it’s still serious,” Jena Parris said. “It hasn’t gone away.”
We’ve learned a lot of new lessons with COVID-19, but the best defense against the virus may be remembering one of the oldest.
“I think you need to treat other people the way you’d want to be treated,” Brent Carr said.
With common sense practices like masks and distancing, the numbers can drop.
“If we all do our part, we could get this right,” Casanova said.
