Salinas family cares for each other, loses two in the process
Julia Duran wants people to realize the coronavirus is real and many face it alone
SALINAS >> Julia Duran was caught between a rock and a hard place. She knew that she would be putting herself at risk when her 81-year-old father developed a cough and her 78-yearold mother and 46-year- old brother with down syndrome, soon began to feel sick. But she had limited options and they needed help.
In the end, COVID-19 would claim the lives of two of her family members while the infection would cause varying degrees of illness and hospital stays for others.
Still fresh in her mind, Duran, 51, recalled the family’s ordeal starting on Sept. 4, when she checked in on her mother, father and brother who lived together.
Earlier that week, Duran’s mother had told her and her sister, the caregivers for their parents and brother, not to come over since her dad had developed a slight cough. But by week’s end, the worry had gotten the better of them and they went to check in on their family.
She remembers her father, who had early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, sounding more disoriented than he had ever been.
“I felt guilty about wearing masks and gloves,” said Duran. “I have underlying conditions that made me take those precautions.”
When the sisters checked in with the family, they discovered their father “did not sound right and was so out of it,” said Duran. They thought his medication may have mixed badly with the cough medicine he was taking so they took him to the emergency room.
Coronavirus testing would confirm that Duran’s mother and father had COVID-19 and later results showed her brother had it too. Her dad was hospitalized and her sister was allowed to stay with him to help with communication and care due to his condition.
At first, her sister’s test came back negative but in the end, they were all infected. Mother, father, brother, Duran, her sister and brother-in-law.
“We all had different symptoms,” said Duran. “We were very fortunate because my husband stayed home and didn’t come over. I quarantined at my parent’s house.”
Duran became the caretaker of her brother as her father remained hospitalized and her mother soon followed with fevers and pneumonia. Her mom was released, after two days, back into Duran’s care and accompanied by an oxygen tank.
Her brother was sick but being helped by an inhaler and a blood oxygen monitor at home. He soon became worse and Duran found herself back at the hospital emergency room where he was admitted and she would soon follow.
“I went into the hospital from the ER,” said Duran.
She was placed in the room next to her father, separated by glass, she could see him. Her father received treatments and the news was good one day, then bad the next.
“All the nurses were so connected and just knew what we were going through,” said Duran. “They were just so amazing … they were like angels.”
Duran said she was given updates on the conditions of her father and brother and felt connected to them as she struggled in her own battle with the coronavirus.
She is grateful to have been there when her father died.
“I woke up one day and saw them comforting him and I knew it was time,” said Duran. “I was able to be by his side in his final moments.”
She said she gave her father a final blessing, as her mother and sister tried but were not able to get onto video chat in time.
Duran said she was so weak, she could not get up to kiss her father goodbye but believes he knew she was there, and that thought gives her comfort.
Jesus Ortiz Ramirez, 81, of Salinas, died peacefully on Sept. 19.
A few days later Duran was well enough to go home. The nurses wheeled her over to her
brother’s glass- enclosed quarters. He had been shaved and looked to be about 12 years old, she said.
“My brother loved music and they got him a docking station to listen to his music and a deck of cards,” said Duran. “My nurse took care of me and him.”
Duran said that she waved goodbye to her brother and told him she loved him.
“He looked at me and pouted. It was the hardest thing. But the nurse got him going by starting the music and dancing around him,” said Duran. “She took care of us and went above and beyond.”
Javier “Javi” Ortiz, 46, of Salinas, died peacefully with his mother by his side on Sept. 25.
Father and son died within six days of each other.
The family would adjust funeral plans for the father so that his son could be included and the two of them were sent off together.
“With the holidays it’s been tough. We are still thinking about Dad and my brother. But it’s a blessing they went together,” said Duran.
She said her brother and father were best friends and their deaths within days of
each other gives the family peace.
Duran said her mother went back into the hospital a week after the funerals. Her oxygen levels were not coming up and she knew something was wrong. She would spend another eight days in the hospital with pneumonia.
Through sickness and death, the family has rallied around one another. Duran’s mother was cared for by her sister and niece while Duran was in the hospital. Once home, her mother took care of Duran who, just as her mother did, went home on oxygen too. Both mother and daughter have had chest x-rays since and everything looks good, she said.
As a family, they all took care of each other and realize that is how it was passed along from one family member to the next, but there really was no choice.
“Unfortunately, it takes others in the caretaker’s role. We followed what we needed to do and we stayed away, but duty called and we had to go,” she said.
Duran no longer has a cough, but she finds herself short of breath at times, especially when she is tired, which is a lingering effect of the illness for her. She has experienced hair loss which she said may be a combination of medications and stress.
“My mom is very strong and has a strong faith,” said Duran.
Her mother is now living alone in the house she once shared with her husband of 55 years and their special-needs son. She has no intention at the moment to change that. Both mother and daughter know what they need to do to get healthier and are taking vitamins and getting rest.
“We can’t get sick again,” said Duran.
The sisters have become “PSA announcements for oxygen meters” or a pulse oximeter, a small electronic device that estimates the saturation of oxygen in the blood. Duran said that is what made her go to the hospital for her brother and herself.
But she stresses that the primary reason she wants to share her family’s story is to let people know that COVID-19 is real, to take it seriously and that many people have to face it alone.
Duran has high praise for the medical staff at Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System and describes them as being well- organized and “having it down pat” doing everything they can to help patients and families.
Duran is back at work after spending a month-anda-half recovering from COVID-19.