A Florida man is battling for his life in the hospital after contracting coronavirus from his son.
John Place, 42, is currently in the intensive care unit at Westside Regional Medical Center and has been on a ventilator for over two weeks.
Place contracted COVID-19 after his 21-year-old son went out with friends and unknowingly transmitted the virus to the household, reported NBC Miami.
Michelle Zymet, Place’s wife, had urged her stepson not to not hang out with his friends and to always wear a mask.
“I pleaded with him every time he left the house, ‘Please wear your mask, take sanitizer, make sure you’re constantly washing your hands,'” Zymet said. “He always assured me, ‘Don’t worry, mom. I’m doing everything right, relax, chill.’ You know how these kids are, so I trusted in him.”
Despite her overtures, he went out one night in June and removed his mask to eat and drink.
A few days later, the young man started feeling cold symptoms and was later told one of his friends had tested positive for coronavirus.
By this point, he had already spread the virus to the family. First his 14-year-old brother developed a cough, then his six-year-old sister had a runny nose. Zymet experienced fever and chills. They all eventually tested positive, but only Place, who is diabetic, needed to be hospitalized.
While Zymet and the children are beginning to recover, Place’s health continues to remain in serious condition.
“He’s fighting for his life literally every single minute in that hospital,” Zymet told 7 News Miami. “We’re all COVID positive. None of us can leave the house. We can’t go anywhere. I can’t see my husband. It’s difficult, and it’s scary that he’s there all alone.”
Zymet said her husband is slowly showing signs of improvement, but still has a long road ahead of him. In the meantime, the family is trying to remain positive.
“This has definitely brought us together,” she added. “We could have eventually gotten this disease somewhere else. But it is the unfortunate truth that he did bring it home.”
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