TAMPA, Fla. — While coronavirus cases rise in Florida, hospitals in the Tampa Bay area are starting to get overwhelmed. Some families are having to wait for an ICU bed.
"At the beginning of all of this, I was probably like a lot of people are where I would say, I don't know if this is real," Brandon native David Goldsberry said.
His mind quickly changed after his 86-year-old mother tested positive for coronavirus. Edna has Alzheimer's and didn't realize how sick she was.
"The next day after we got the results back, she really took a dive and I got a call from our caregiver on Sunday evening, a week ago that her temperature was up to 104.4," Goldsberry said.
He rushed her to the emergency room in Brandon for the second time in two weeks. When they got there, the COVID unit was full and they didn't have room for her, he said.
"When they had a space available in ICU, they moved her upstairs. I was able to go upstairs and see her and get her all checked in, which was very important to me because I wanted to make sure they understood that she had Alzheimer's. I'm not a person that's easily scared but I was, I was scared for her because I knew she would be scared," Goldsberry said.
While he was worried about his mom in the hospital, his 84-year-old mother-in-law had to be admitted, as well.
It was Audrey Gillespie's second time in the hospital after getting COVID-19. She needed emergency surgery.
"Within a couple of days after she was discharged, she developed another problem and ended up back in the emergency room. Because the COVID-19 was taking such a toll on her lungs, she just was not able to recover from the surgery and she passed away last week," Goldsberry said.
The family now mourns the loss of Audrey and Edna fights to get healthy again.
A treatment of Remdesivir and other medications got her home after eight days in the hospital. She is weak and needs oxygen, her son said.
"She has a lot of struggle just standing up. Walking is not really an issue. We have a nurse come in the afternoon to do an evaluation for physical therapy to try and get some of her strength back. So it's going to be a long road just to get her back," Goldsberry said.
David Goldsberry just wants people to be careful and protect one another.
"It seems that once a person has this, it just doesn't let go. And older people in particular, if you have parents that are in their 70s and 80s or older, protect them, keep them away from everybody. It's a good chance it could take your life and people need to realize that," he said.
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