COVID-19 Tragedy: Married Couple Die Just Days Apart
A Texas councilman and his husband died within two days of each other after contracting COVID-19, NBC affiliate WOIA News 4 San Antonio reports.
"Live Oak Councilman Anthony Brooks, an employee at the San Antonio Military Medical Center and a military veteran, and Phillip Tsai-Brooks, a local business owner, died early last week at Methodist Hospital Metropolitan in San Antonio," writes NBC.
Philip, 52, had gone to the doctor after returning from a trip feeling ill. He was sent home with meds, only to later be admitted to the hospital and put on a ventilator.
On March 26, he reportedly posted on Facebook the following:
"Back in the er.. oxygen super low Heart rate low. Shortness of breath vomiting blood pressure high fever Update. I tested positive for corona Be here for a couple of days.. then quarantine 14 day"
It was his last post.
His husband Anthony, 42, "was at home at the time after being diagnosed with a low-grade pneumonia," the brothers told NBC. "Initially, no one in the family suspected the couple had contracted the coronavirus, but by the time the tests came back positive, the two men were getting increasingly ill."
At first Anthony refused to go to the ER, but was sent there after his mother-in-law found him unresponsive. He ended up in the hospital room next to his husband.
"Philip was sitting up and talking in the ICU when he suddenly died. Tony died shortly after," said the NBC report.
Complicating matters is that Philip's mom lived with the men and she is quarantined with the virus.
"It is very hard," said Alfred Tsai. "We have brothers that live in San Antonio who had to stand outside the house while we told her the news. And that's the heartbreaking side. My brothers can't go and comfort her. She's standing in the doorway crying and we are here in California."
"We urge EVERYONE to stay home!" Anthony Tsai posted on Facebook. "Stop the spread! You don't want to go through what we are going through. Rest in peace Tony and Phillip. Still in disbelief."