It’s one thing to deal with getting the novel coronavirus, and it’s another thing to deal with being “patient zero” in your community.
One Tennessee man is opening up about what it was like to be the first coronavirus patient in his state in a detailed Facebook post.
Chris Baumgartner explained that he’s been living a “crazy week” along with his family.
“My family has not only had a front row seat to the mass hysteria we are now experiencing as a nation, but we’ve also been part of the storyline,” he wrote.
While he noted most of his symptoms were “mild,” he explained that the mental challenges were the true struggle and gave him a “new appreciation for those who live under the cloud of Stigma every single day.”
He was met with an “irrational public” who demanded “to know if you are the ‘one,’ where you live, and if you might have somehow infected their child or family.”
“Mentally, our experience has been all over the board,” he explained.
However, some good came out of it too as a good chunk of the community rallied behind him and his family and sent well wishes, groceries, and even books to help keep them entertained during quarantine.
“We’ve had literally hundreds and hundreds of calls, messages, and texts encouraging us, praying for us, and people pausing from their own challenges in life, to walk through this crazy situation with us,” Baumgartner wrote.
He added that: “Something incredible happens when fear and anxiety are replaced with acts of kindness and compassion …”
Baumgartner may have been the first case in Tennessee, but the state is currently up to 52 cases as of Monday as the outbreak, officially a pandemic, continues to grow globally, according to The New York Post.
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