OCFA Captain Returns To Work After Recovering From COVID-19 At Home With Healthy Wife, Daughter
IRVINE (CBSLA) — When one Orange County Fire Authority captain was sent home, along with 23 others, on March 18 after two firefighters at his station near the University of California Irvine tested positive for COVID-19, he imagined the worst.
"The worst part's the fear of not knowing," Capt. Paul Holaday said.
Two days later, Holaday became sick and tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
"Did I take this to my family, and are they going to get it," Holaday said.
He decided to quarantine at home where his wife and daughter also live. To keep his distance, he stayed in the guest bedroom.
"We started cleaning everything we could," Melissa Holaday, the captain's wife, said. "For my daughter and I, of course every tickle in your throat, every headache, you're like, 'Oh no. Do I have it?'"
For the worst three days of the illness, Melissa carefully brought food and water to the guest room wearing a mask and gloves.
"It really wasn't that bad," Holaday said. "I had the flu back in February — I was diagnosed with Influenza B — and that was substantially worse than the COVID was for me."
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But just when he thought he had recovered, he had a relapse and was showing symptoms again.
"It did make me nervous, because with a cold or a flu you get over it and you're over it," Melissa said. "And he ended up sleeping, I think, one of the days from almost the night almost until the next night, and that one made me nervous because I started checking if he was breathing OK."
But the following day, Holaday felt well enough to play games with his family in the living room, always following the recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of staying six feet away, wearing a face covering and washing his hands constantly.
And to date, his family has not shown any symptoms of the illness.
"It was in our house, I had it," he said. "And two people living in close quarters — taking those precautions, doing the good hand washing, keeping the masks on, keeping six feet away — they didn't get sick.
"We've gotten through it as a family, and now we need to get through it as a nation."