TACOMA, Wash. — A Tacoma nurse says her fears of bringing home coronavirus came true, and now her husband is sick with COVID-19 and on a ventilator.
“I was just so scared, it's contracted so easily, and I was just so worried that he was going to get it,” said Tammy Edwards, who works in the birthing unit at MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital.
She said she did everything she could to avoid catching coronavirus, and took precautions at home, but in early April, she started having symptoms and tested positive for the virus.
Her husband Brian soon came down with a fever and had trouble breathing. His case is much worse than hers, and paramedics rushed him to Tacoma General on April 19.
“It's terrible. When he left, I knew I couldn't go and be with him, so I sent his phone, knowing that that would probably be the only way I got to talk to him,” Edwards said.
Each evening, a nurse leaves the phone at Brian's bedside. He's sedated and cannot speak because of his breathing tube, so Tammy will read him messages from family and friends.
“I will just talk to him for four hours or three hours until the phone dies and we're disconnected, but I know he can hear me, I have to believe he does,” Edwards said.
She said there are small, hopeful signs that Brian's condition is improving.
Edwards understands the technical details of recovery, so she's cautious, but says it brings her great comfort knowing her colleagues are caring for her husband.
Several hospital staffers signed a poster and hung it on a wall in Brian’s room. It reads: “Sending love from your Tacoma General family.”
“I'm proud to work for them and I'm just so happy that Brian is there, I wouldn't want him anywhere else,” she said.