A woman hospitalized with covid in Florida returns home to find her husband dead from the same virus. – Marseille News

Lisa Steadman was eager to return home to her husband.

The nail technician had spent more than a week in a central Florida hospital recovering from a severe case of the coronavirus while Ronald Steadman, who also contracted covid-19, has since battled a milder case. his home.

During many of their check-in phone calls, she told him how afraid she was of dying alone in the hospital. Her health was improving and so was hers, he reassured her. Soon they would be together again in Winter Haven, Florida, the house they were renovating.

But Ronald, 55, did not appear to be home when Lisa returned on August 11.

“Ron? Ron? Lisa, 58, screamed, looking around the house for him.

Finally, the barking of their three dogs led her to their room.

When Lisa opened the door, she found Ron unconscious on his side of the bed and their three dogs in distress. By that time, her body had already started to decompose, she told the Washington Post. The dogs appeared to have not been fed or watered for at least two days, she said.

“I just got hysterical,” Lisa said. “It was like stepping into a horror movie. This is what I see now when I think of him.

Neither Ron, who died of complications from covid-19, nor Lisa had been vaccinated, Lisa said. The two had agreed that they would wait longer to schedule their shots. Lisa rarely got sick and only left her home for work, and Ron, who was responsible for the couple’s grocery shopping during the pandemic, always wore her mask and stayed away from large crowds, Lisa said.

“We both thought that [the vaccine] came out so fast. How could they have done so many tests on it? I was just careful about it, ”she said. “It wasn’t that I was against vaccines.”

The couple, who met through a Christian dating site after losing their former partners, were among tens of millions of Americans who have yet to receive at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, which is available free of charge to anyone 12 years of age and over. Like the Steadmans, many people are reluctant to shoot. Others have delayed vaccination.

Nearly 52% of Floridians are fully vaccinated, according to data compiled by The Post. Over the past week, new cases and deaths reported daily in the state have increased by nearly 10% and 66%, respectively, according to data from The Post’s coronavirus tracker.

Health officials continue to stress that vaccines significantly reduce the chances of getting seriously ill or dying from the virus as the highly transmissible delta variant spreads across the country.

Ron, a mechanical and electrical engineer, was the first to test positive on August 1, Lisa said. Doctors at the emergency care site he visited sent him home with medication and asked him to return if his condition worsened. Two days later Lisa, who had gone to the emergency room because she was starting to show symptoms, also tested positive. She was sent home, only to return a few days later after her oxygen levels fell to 80% and she passed out at home.

The couple stayed in touch for much of their hospital stay, Lisa said. How are the dogs? How do you feel today? Have you called your family? the couple were wondering, Lisa said. After almost a week in the hospital, Lisa said she was feeling better. Ron was improving as well, she said.

A few days before she was released, Ron told her that her phone was not working properly. At one point, when Lisa couldn’t reach him, she called the Winter Haven Police Department to see him, she said.

Police called her back to report that her husband was fine, which the department confirmed to The Post. So when her phone call went straight to her voicemail on August 10, Lisa didn’t give it much thought. After all, Ron had said his phone wasn’t working and was known to be a deep sleeper. The police had already reassured her that he was fine. She figured they would be reunited the next day when she was released.

“I thought he would be fine and his phone wasn’t working,” she said.

Local authorities later told him he was probably already dead.

Lisa, who reportedly celebrated the couple’s fourth wedding anniversary on October 28, said she plans to get the shot in September – a decision she had already made before leaving hospital.

She was hurt by comments on social media criticizing her decision not to get the vaccine sooner.

“I did what I thought was best for me,” Lisa told the Post. “Even if you don’t agree with me that I didn’t get the vaccine sooner, you don’t say,” I bet you would have liked to have had the vaccine so that your husband wasn’t dead. “”

She added: “We wanted to make sure [the vaccine] was safe.

She plans to finish the house the couple were remodeling in honor of her husband. That’s what he wanted her to do, she said.

“It was Ron’s dream,” Lisa told the Post.

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