No One is Immune: Testimonies From Those Who Had COVID-19
By Isaiah Chauhan and Bianca Maldonado
In March, the U.S. was hit by COVID-19 shortly after a pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization. Many states, Illinois included, went into lockdowns to try and curb the spread of the virus. But for many, they came too late as case numbers across the country began to soar, especially in the Chicagoland area.
Among the infected were Taron “T” Neal and Kristina Haran, two nurse technicians at the Cardiac Catheterization Lab (a.k.a. Cath Lab) at MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn started experiencing symptoms around the time that Illinois went into lockdown.
“I started feeling sick like three days after the first lockdown happened,” Kristina Haran said. “A lot of people didn’t believe me, that I was sick; Even when I went to the doctor they were just like ‘oh yeah you don’t even have signs of COVID, it’s just upper respiratory infection.’”
Haran said that her symptoms were typical with what many symptomatic people experienced: fever, cough, loss of taste and smell. But her fever was just below the temperature required for testing, so it was difficult for her to get a diagnosis right away.
“They didn’t want to test me,” Haran said. “The only reason they did test me was ’cause someone else at work tested positive, so they were just curious to see if I was gonna test positive, or if I gave it to him.”
That someone else was Taron Neal. His symptoms were also typical for COVID-19. “It started from maybe having a fever and a cough, to losing my sense of taste and smell, to losing any urge to eat at all,” he said.
Once COVID-19 hit Chicago-area hospitals, the decision was made to furlough most of the Cath Lab staff. The reasoning behind this was simple: operate at minimum capacity possible, or risk getting the whole department sick. The nurses and techs who work at the Cath Lab are specialized in that field, so it was a matter of not just safety, but also of practicality in order to keep the Lab afloat.
“They really tried to keep the Cath Lab out of doing the screening tables, going to help the ICU, going to help the COVID units, because they wanted to keep all of us healthy, because God forbid all of us did test positive, that whole lab’s down,” Haran said. “You can’t function without a [Cath] Lab.”
Most of the staff of the Cath Lab were furloughed from April to mid-June, when they were brought back to work as COVID cases had begun to lessen. Neal and Haran took advantage of their time off to recover at home.
Recovery for Haran was fine according to her, but for Neal, it was more taxing. About recovery, he says “It’s pushing yourself to actually be active, to actually feel better throughout the process… it’s a mental process as well.”
Both Neal and Haran relied on loved ones to get them necessities. Haran’s husband was able to bring home food as he works in a grocery store. Neal received care packages of what he needed from friends and family. He said, “Without a support system, recovery can be hard to get through.”
Neal and Haran have gotten chances to glimpse into the COVID units at MacNeal when running errands like dropping off food to other medical workers.
“You can just see the stress in all the nurses’ eyes,” Haran said. “They wear that N-95 their whole twelve hour shift.”
Neal gained some personal insight into his own wellbeing after seeing a unit in person. “Just seeing how your body can recover so fast and how quickly you can build an immunity,” he says. “That’s so important when watching it from an older aspect because everyone is so different and everyone’s defense mechanism is so different.”
2020 has been a trying year for essential workers. Having to risk exposure to COVID-19 everyday for society to function results in a fearful workday, and unfortunately this is the norm for many. Deanna Ellis is one of many taking the risk.
Ellis, a TSA employee at O’Hare International Airport, constantly has to deal with the pressures of ensuring safety for passengers and herself, all while following proper precautions. However, these safety measures could only work so well. Ellis contracted COVID-19 in April.
“I was officially diagnosed on April 1st,” Ellis said. “I contacted Lutheran General Hospital and North Shore Healthsystem, and I told them that I work for TSA.” She most recently got tested on November 20th, a process that is now part of her weekly routine.
“I’m in constant contact with thousands of people every day. Eventually it got to a point where I was like, lethargic. I was coughing. I had just, like, weakness. And I just wasn’t feeling good. High risk environment, right? Dealing with thousands of people.”
This is the reality for essential workers during the pandemic. While many jobs have migrated to home, this is not a possibility for essential workers.
“I was literally sitting at my dining room table on a Sunday and I just felt a fever coming on,” Ellis said. “I told my husband like ‘Oh shit. I’m starting to get a fever.’ And he looked at me like ‘you don’t look too good.’”
Ellis was taken to Lutheran General by her son to receive a questionnaire to determine whether she should be seen. This was in April, back when COVID-19 tests were scarce.
Upon hearing the news, Ellis had to make sure that she didn’t expose the virus to her family; she self-isolated in their trailer. “I was in there. And every two weeks I got tested,” she said. “I was positive in the middle of April to the end of April. I finally tested negative on May 8.”
The biggest worry for COVID-19 exposure wasn’t for Ellis’ children, but her husband who has a pre-existing respiratory condition. The Ellis siblings were nervous that not enough safety precautions were being taken for him.
“We actually were worried about my husband because he’s older than I am. He actually went to a hotel for like three weeks,” she said. “I didn’t want him to be around me because it could kill him.” Even while Deanna was isolated in the trailer, Mr. Ellis did not return home until she received three negative tests in a row.
“I couldn’t lay down because I was coughing,” Ellis said. “I felt like I was choking. I have to sleep sitting up. And I wouldn’t sleep like a whole night after about two weeks and it started to get mentally draining.
Ellis’s son, Matthew, foresaw the potential dangers of COVID-19 early on. It haunted him knowing that he saw this — his mother, an essential worker, surrounding herself around potential carriers everyday — coming. It traumatized him upon realizing this virus could kill her.
“I woke up every morning and checked on her because every morning I had to prepare myself with the mentality that ‘Today could be the day that I lose my mother,’” he said. “And that thought terrified me.”
Ellis was fortunate enough that TSA covered her salary during quarantine since she caught COVID at work, so the family’s income was fine. But for low-income families, the economic fallout of the pandemic is hitting them the hardest.
According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in August, one-in-four adults have had trouble paying their bills since the outbreak started in the U.S.. 25% of U.S. adults said someone in their household lost their job due to COVID-19.
This new reality Americans face is a tricky one. As many non-essential workers are losing their jobs and ability to afford living expenses as a result, essential workers risk getting infected for the sake of their families.
Juan Huerta is a nurse who has been working with COVID-19 patients at MacNeal ever since the virus first spread throughout Chicago and Cook County. When lockdown happened, the Heart and Vascular department that he worked at was converted into a COVID ward.
Huerta’s work within his unit deals with taking care of patients who are just one step above needing to be taken to the ICU. “We discuss which of the patients are on the higher need of oxygen, which ones take priority, who to look out for, just in case they do crash,” he says.
The influx of patients to MacNeal from Berwyn and surrounding neighborhoods exploded in almost no time. Six departments, including the Heart and Vascular unit, were converted into COVID wards. About 150 out of 374 beds were filled in the first wave. Working these units is a constant race against the clock, and it seems endless.
“Infectious disease doctors would come here and there, but they’d just show up and talk to us,” Huerta said. “And then we had to get back to work ’cause these people are just coming in; they’re sick, they’re not breathing.”
As case numbers are increasing across Chicagoland again, Huerta hasn’t stopped being busy. “There’s a lot of people coming in now. As soon as we get someone either discharged or sent to ICU, they’re right away giving us more patients,” he says.
Trying to care for COVID patients comes with many challenges. The nurses have to try and keep up in order to give the best care possible. “Everything was changing with [epidemiologists] as well, so they’re telling us one thing and then the next week it’s another thing, and the next week it’s another,” Huerta says. “It’s just evolving. The only thing that was consistent is what we as providers had to take care of ourselves.”