A Philadelphia man says his symptoms of coronavirus came on suddenly last week.
“One day you’re asymptomatic then the next day - boom! - this thing hits you like a ton of bricks,” said Stan Pollock, a retiree who turned 75 this week.
Pollock is now dealing with cough, fever and exhaustion that have come with the virus while he is home alone. His wife, who has a lung condition, is staying with family for 14 days.
“If I contract this illness, this virus, it could be very serious. It could be deadly,” Fran Pollock said.
The situation, 70-year-old Fran Pollock says, is stressful.
“I’m waiting every day for it to either hit me or not hit me,” she said. “It’s very scary.”
The couple returned from a two-week trip to Mexico in early March. Stan Pollock said he initially did not have any symptoms, went out with friends and attended a concert at the Kimmel Center. Last Wednesday, he said he woke up feeling fatigued. This week, Pollock said he was tested at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and his doctor told him the test was positive.
Fran Pollock has not been tested and says she feels “perfect.”
“They won’t test me because I don’t have any symptoms,” she said.
Stan Pollock, who does not have the shortness of breath that has been associated with the virus, says he’s communicating with his doctor each day, but the treatment isn’t much different than it would be for a flu, with fluids and Tylenol. Friends are calling to check on him, and bring him food, he said. Fran Pollock says she hates that she is not with her husband while he’s sick.
The couple, in separate FaceTime interviews on Thursday, both encouraged others to take the virus seriously.
“Can’t stress enough that people really have to do, you know, social separation,” Stan Pollock said. “ And stay the heck in as much as possible.”
