FORT WORTH, Texas — It's been 14 days and counting for Tony Mahon.
That’s two weeks since he was tested for COVID-19. Still, he and his wife are waiting on the results.
Mahon, 56, spent seven days in Arlington Memorial Hospital. He was released one week ago and is doing much better now.
“I just called the hospital and they pulled up his chart and it still shows the results are not in,” Mahon’s wife said.
WFAA has received dozens of emails and calls from North Texas residents who have been tested and now are desperately waiting for the results of those tests.
One of those waiting for results was a Parkland neonatal intensive care nurse practitioner. Her and her 17-year-old daughter had traveled to New York for Spring Break and her daughter got sick 14 days later.
Testing for flu and strep were negative.
“She said it felt like somebody was sitting on her chest,” she said.
She asked not to be named because her daughter did not want her medical information made public.
“I’d feel horrible going back to work and then have the test come back positive and me having exposed the babies, my co-workers, everybody,” she said.
“They’re just saying they’ve been backlogged.”
The test results came back Monday afternoon – 11 days later.
The results were negative for COVID-19, but by then she had missed two weeks of work.
By the time Tony Mahon ended up in the hospital, his fever had spiked at 103.
“I didn't know if I was ever going to see him again when I dropped him off at the emergency room,” Mary Mahon said. “We were both wearing masks. I couldn't hug him. We said goodbye and then I went home.”
Not being with her husband of 29 years was unbearable. She didn’t want him to know that she’d started feeling sick, too.
Doctors believe Tony Mahon had COVID-19. When she asked for an explanation for the delay, she was told that LabCorp is backlogged.
“They’re just backed up,” Mary Mahon said. “We just want the results. We need answers.”
Mary’s also been sick but is feeling much better now. She has not been tested.
In a statement, a LabCorp spokesman said the company is now performing 35,000 to 40,000 tests per day and “expects capacity to increase assuming supplies are available.”
“Importantly, LabCorp’s capacity is now meeting the average current daily volume of tests we are receiving at our labs,” the statement said. “Typically, we have been able to deliver test results to the ordering healthcare provider between 4-5 days from the date of specimen pickup, and are actively focused on reducing the time patients need to wait to be informed of their results.”
The company said it had performed about 500,000 tests since making its test available March 5.
Dr. Nilesh Nangrani, owner of Urgent Care2go in Farmers Branch, said he’s been using an Austin-based lab and getting a turnaround time of one to two days on COVID-19 tests.
“Our process is very streamlined,” he said. “As soon as we do get the samples, we put it out for dispatch so we end up paying a little bit extra price, a premium price, which we charge our patients, and they’re OK with that.”
Nangrani said he expects the speed of test results to dramatically improve with new testing methods.
One is a blood test that tests to see if the patient has the antibodies for COVID-19. The blood test results can come back within minutes.
“I just wish we had these tests before the pandemic hit,” he said.
Will Horn, a Texas Christian University student, was initially tested by college’s health center medical staff. He said he was told that test was sent on to Quest Diagnostics.
That test wasn’t back when he was admitted into John Peter Smith Hospital in Forth a few days later.
All of his symptoms – fever, body aches, extreme fatigue, pneumonia -- pointed to him having COVID-19. A scan of his lungs also indicated it was the illness.
He’d been out of the hospital for several days when the test results came back showing that he did, in fact, have COVID-19.
“I know there's a backlog but I never would have expected that it would have taken over two weeks to get my results,” said Horn, who is still recovering from pneumonia.
In a statement posted Monday on their website, the company said it has completed testing on almost 550,000 COVID-19 tests. The company handles about 35,000 COVID-19 tests a day.
The company says the backlog now stands at about 80,000 COVID-19 tests, down from a backlog of about 160,000 tests on March 25th.
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