Police officer denied free testing after catching Covid from suspect

CROFTON, MARYLAND: In Maryland, we had cases arising from DC. We never thought that we would be affected, but then everything started shutting down. There were very limited items on the grocery store’s shelves. That was when people started to panic. I told many around me about the pandemic. They’d never heard of a pandemic and didn’t understand why everyone was getting sick. 

Things turned drastically and quickly. 

On the other hand, we had the younger generation who did not care at all about the pandemic. For them, it was an easy way to get out of work or school.

I am in the police and considered essential personnel, so I was working the whole time. When the pandemic hit, we were told to limit our contact with the public. We were asked not to pull over anyone in traffic like we normally did. If we were going on calls, they wanted us to try to handle it via a phone call first, and if we had to go out, they wanted us to use precautions. This was before the whole mask situation.

We never planned the budget for a pandemic, so we did not have any masks, gloves, or hand sanitizer. Anything that we were getting was all out of our own budget or pocket.

I responded to a location where the suspect was to be arrested. We have to put them in the vehicle with us. We don't have any other means of transportation. We can put masks on them, but if the person says that they can't breathe, we have to remove the masks. 

He was coughing, but when the pandemic first came out, the cough was not considered a symptom of Covid. So when the prisoner told me that he had COVID, I told him that he would still go to jail. 

At that time, any suspects we arrested, all of them said that they had Covid in hopes that the police officer would not arrest them, but we have a job to do. I had to arrest him. 

He got in the car, and I took him to jail. 

It started with a cough -- a barking cough. But it was not producing mucus. Then I began getting chills and headaches, and then I just kept being lethargic, like very tired. That's not me. I am a very active person. At some points, my chest would be tight. I felt like I couldn't breathe, but I don't have asthma, and I am not allergic to pollen or anything.

All these symptoms were alien to me and never happened to me before. 

I have a two-year-old and a one-year-old who lives with me. When I got sick, I had to literally shift my kids and send them to my mother-in-law's house. They stayed over there for almost two months.

My daughter is two. She's a daddy's girl. I can't turn left or right without her being underneath me. It hurt my heart that I was not able to see my kids. It hurt them too. I could do FaceTime. I wasn't sure what I had, it hurt me. I didn't want my kids around me because I didn't want my kids to get sick because they met the criteria of what a five and under can have, they could die. I don't want my kids to die. I didn't want my kids to get sick.

I felt like I was not even alive, like I was literally going to die in the house. When someone is not allowed to socialize and the TV reads the news of Covid over and over again, you feel depressed. You need people around you. You need to be socialized and when you don't have anybody to socialize with, it's like, “Oh my God, like, is this what life's about? Am I really going to just perish”

When you are sick, you want somebody to care for you. You want somebody to give you that motivation who pushes you to get up, you have to do this. You have to do that. It is the only way you are going to make it and make your body stronger. But when you are in the house by yourself and you are sick, you just lay down and you don’t feel like doing anything. I just laid in bed for days. I was like, this can't be what life is about. It can't be. I could play a game, but I was so tired, but I didn't want to do that. I just laid there and thought that this can't be the end of the world just can't be.

A major setback was when I started coughing blood. It was not much, it was a little, but that concerned me. I have never had a blood clot before in my cough. I couldn't taste anything, couldn't smell. 

Then, my body took a turn for the worse.

The governor announced that the elderly, the young, and essential personnel could be tested for free because we are on the frontlines. But despite what they said, it wasn't easy. I went to the hospital three different times before a doctor was willing to give me a test. 

The first time I went to the hospital, I told them I had signs and symptoms of COVID-19. I even told them that I had come in possible contact with the suspect that I arrested, who told me that he had Covid. 

Even after telling them all the circumstances, they decided not to test me for COVID. Instead, they tested me for the flu and strep throat, which came out negative. 

A week went by, and my symptoms got worse. I went back and told them that I had symptoms of the COVID-19.

When I went back to the hospital in uniform the second time, I demanded to speak to the physician on shift. Doctors have discretion on who they want to test and who they don't think needs a test. The doctor told me that they couldn’t test me because  I was younger, even though I was essential personnel. 

I explained to him that I've been an EMT in the state of Maryland since 2007.  As soon as I told him about my medical background, he was ready to test me. This is the reason why I think our cases got worse -- these doctors and the people who take the tests did not take it seriously.

My Covid test came out negative. I asked the doctor if it could be possible that I had it as I had all the symptoms. He told me that the negative result is all that mattered. But, I’m sure I had it. 

When I first saw my kids after my 2 months recovery, I felt like they were reborn. Felt like new babies that just came out of the mother's womb. My younger one was crawling when she left the house and when I met them she was a tiny toddler. I missed my baby's first steps. My two-year-old learned more words. She is able to express herself more freely. Now she is choosing her clothes by herself, before she left, we were picking her clothes out. For a lot of people two months is not a lot of time. But when you have little girls, they change so fast. I missed so much of their life because of Covid. 

To this day, I am getting bills from the hospital for the COVID and flu tests and everything else they did for me. I don't see why I need to pay for the tests. I met all the criteria for free testing. The first bill I got after the insurance took care of the majority of it, still ended up costing me almost $600 for the flu test, not including the doctors’ fees. On top of that, I got another $250 bill from the doctor. I have not received a bill for Covid yet, but I'm sure it's coming. 

To this day I have been asking for an antibody but they have denied me. They're not giving me a reason at all. I have gone to CVS which offers free testing. They asked me if I got tested for Covid and what my results were. I told them that I was tested and the result was negative. To this, they replied that I don’t need to get an antibody test as I don’t fit in the criteria. I refuse to go back to another hospital. I can't afford to keep getting bills after bills, after bills, just to make sure that I'm okay.

Covid has actually made me more cautious. It has actually made me step back and realize that I need to take a break from a lot of other stuff. Not only this, it has also helped me save money as I am not eating out as much. I used to socialise a lot. I used to go to the casino, even if I wasn't gambling, just go to the casino with friends and family and have a good time, have a drink at some place, but I am not even doing that. I am trying to  stay away from places which have a lot of public. The only big place that I am visiting is my work, other than that, I am only spending quality time with my daughters and just building a relationship with my wife and family. Covid has actually brought us better together as a family.