The 31-year-old has to pause to catch her breath, carry a can of oxygen with her wherever she goes, and walk with a cane – all this since she signed the Covid-19 contract in May.
Her doctors told her that one side of her heart is now bigger than the other, she says, but her heart is also broken after losing her father to the virus. His five girlfriends also died, leaving their five young children without parents.
“I don’t have balance in my body,” Ruelas told CNN. “It’s hard for me to breathe, I can’t walk for long without breathing. I have to constantly check my oxygen – something I never even thought of before. It sometimes falls so low, I think I’m breathing with a straw. I’m having trouble sleeping now. I’ve never had an issue before. I can’t do anything without help. “
Ruelas’ experience is a mirror of many other Latinos in the U.S. who have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus.
According to Johns Hopkins University, racial and ethnic information is only available to about 35% of deaths in the United States, but even in that small percentage it is clear that Latin Americans are unequally affected by coronavirus in some regions. In fact, to the west, Latinos suffer from epidemics.
Los Angeles County, where Ruelas lives, has the highest number of reported cases and deaths. Again, the majority are Latino.
Latinos are a ‘significant part’ of the required staff
In every county in the state, Latinos has been most affected by the virus, said Dr. Gil Gil Chavez, epidemiologist and co-chair of California’s Covid-19 testing task force – a condition that dragged him back two months to work. His retirement.
D Latin. “There are some well-known factors that Latinos have actually increased cases and cases are worse than other members of the population,” Chavez told CNN. “We have very high rates of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and some immunocompromised conditions (such as obesity (and) smoking.”)
These trends highlight historical historical issues for Latinos, not only in California but across the country, such as economic inequalities, access to health care, and social inequality in use.
“The outbreak in the south and west has exacerbated the adverse effects of COVID-19 for people of color,” the KFF wrote in its report. “Hispanics can be particularly hard hit by outbreaks in these areas.”
Many jobs near Latino in California do not allow for flexible schedules or working from home, said Dr. Which contributes to higher compression rates, Chavez said.
D Latin. “Latinos make up a really significant part of what we would call essential employees,” Chavez said. “Latinos are heavily represented in many industries, from growing food to producing food, working as support staff in hospitals / healthcare facilities, driving trucks and cars. Many of those businesses actually increase the risk of people coming into contact with covid.”
This is evident in the state’s agriculturally rich Central Valley where at one point this summer, the positivity rate in the region rose to about 18%, prompting California government to send three support teams to give Gavin News a clear message. English and Spanish.
Newsome said it has sent the team to the region’s eight hardest hit counties – San Joaquin Quinn, Stanislaus, Merced, Madeira, Fresno, Kings and Tulare and Kern counties.
At the state’s July press conference, the governor said there are parts of the state, some regions and some areas that are disproportionately affected by the transmission of the virus.
Support teams are stepping up testing and contact tracing efforts in conjunction with social services support. This includes food and shelter for people who cannot go to work because they need to be quarantined or isolated when they are sick with the virus or after coming in contact with someone who has tested positive for the virus.
Since then, the positivity rate in the sector has declined, but is more than double the statewide positivity rate, which is currently around %%, state statistics show.
The California Farmworker Foundation is also now offering free trials on work sites that increase the likelihood of part-time workers participating.
Dr. Cha. Chavez said a lack of trust among officials could also hamper the fight to control the virus in some communities.
“People can’t go out for testing,” he said. “People don’t take care of their illness so when they do take care they will have to wait really long.”
Internal health issues, with greater exposure to the Latinos virus, often lead to a more intense fight with the disease – i.e. the likelihood of a more serious case.
How covid quickly spreads to a home area
Ruelas lived in South Los Angeles with his 60-year-old father Humberto Ruelas, his 38-year-old girlfriend Carina Bonilla and their five children, aged two to 17.
Bonilla was the first person to fall ill. “He was working for a fruit seller and his boss … he was positive with Covid,” Ruelas said.
Within days, Ruelas said, Humberto was also ill.
“He went to the hospital three times. First, he was negative for Kovid but he got pneumonia. Then second time, when he found out he was positive for Kovid. And third time, it was his last stop. He never came back. . “
At this stage, Ruilas, who works with adults with developmental disabilities, was still going to work so she was not at home. When her schedule shifted, she spent more time with her family.
He said, “I got sick right away but the thing about me is that I didn’t know I was cowardly with my dad’s girlfriend and his boss.”
Ruelas said he was unable to breathe, walk or even “make it to the bathroom”. The over-the-counter medication didn’t work, and she continued to have chest pains.
Humberto, meanwhile, was also in bad shape. “He couldn’t really talk. He couldn’t move much,” Ruelas said.
But he never crossed Ruelas’ mind that she might have coronavirus, because he took all the necessary precautions.
He said, “When I get back from work, I disinfect myself, change my clothes – wash my hands constantly, always wear a mask.” “I didn’t even go to the stores and deliver my food. So, I knew it couldn’t be me.”
One day, one of her younger brothers came to her room and told her that she felt like she was dying.
“And he looks at me and it’s like, ‘You probably have a coward like my mom.’ “I felt like the whole world just came to me,” Ruelas said.
She immediately phoned her boss to report that someone in her household had tested positive for the virus and would not return to work until she had been tested. Her sister confirmed with her father that Bonilla has a covid.
Ruelas took himself to the hospital and was immediately admitted. He tested positive for Covid-19 and was placed in a solitary room. Within days, Jenny was admitted to the same hospital with her father and Bonilla.
“I remember only four of the 11 days I was there,” she said, referring to the move after she moved out of the emergency room when she spoke to her father again.
“He couldn’t say more. Our conversation was like 26 seconds,” Ruelas said. “He just said, ‘I need you to be fine.’
But it was hard for Ruelas to talk. “It’s hard to react without feeling like my heart is coming out of my chest, without my oxygen coming out. It was also hard to cry.”
The nurses were having a hard time controlling Ruelas’ temperature, so they surrounded him with an ice pack.
“I started getting strange spots around my body and I got a fever. I had a headache. I had a weakness. For two days I couldn’t walk or move. It would burn to open my eyes.” “Definitely eat chest pain and back pain, which was my lungs. I have a loss of taste and smell. I can’t eat for sure. I’ll vomit.”
While she herself was battling the virus, Ruels was getting a signal from doctors that her father, who was in the room next to her, was not doing well.
“Even though I felt close to her, she couldn’t talk to me right now. I said only one wall divides us. I can talk to her.”
The next day, her sister arranged a video chat for Ruelas to see her dad. But looking at his father, face down and on the ventilator, it was hard not to answer.
Doctors did not give their father more than 24 hours to live.
Ruilas could barely move but she realized she could hear nurses and doctors in her father’s room while she was in the bathroom. That means they can hear him – his father can hear him.
“I hit the wall. I was like, ‘Daddy, don’t do that to me. Don’t do that,'” Ruelas said with tears in his eyes.
Medical workers last tried to see her father before she died, but she and her sister could not be in time. Within minutes her father was gone.
“Even though he’s already gone, the expressions on his face – you can see the pain,” he said, crying. “He was in so much pain and I will never forget that face.”
Within eight hours of Humberto’s death, his girlfriend also died – the same day Ruelas was discharged from the hospital.
Prolonged recovery
Ruelas is no longer testing positive for the virus, but she has definitely not recovered. She said she had a stroke while she was in the hospital. In addition to all her other health problems, she now has trouble remembering things.
In addition to the three family members who contracted the coronavirus, Ruelas’ 12-year-old sister also tested positive, but was asymptomatic. Since then she has also recovered.
Now Ruelas lives alone in a house – a house that used to be vibrant and noisy – and he has lost both his younger siblings, his parents, now he lives with Ruelas’ older sister.
“You know why the things you once annoyed? Why can’t we have peace and quiet?” Ruelas said. “As I have peace and quiet now, I miss it.”
She also missed her father, whom she called loud and funny.
“It’s not easy to wake up and hear something, it’s not easy to hear it because one thing about my dad, when he got home, everyone knew he was at home,” Ruelas admitted, struggling with his absence as she walked through his room. . “I have to do a reality check. It won’t come out of there anymore. Respectfully, the doors are still closed. Everything is still there.”
He said he was once in the shoes of people who did not believe the virus could hit so hard. But now he knows if not.
“You didn’t go to the hospital,” he said. “You haven’t heard everything you’ve heard. You haven’t felt pain. It’s painful because it’s a sharp covid. It’s really painful and it can happen to anyone. Today it was me. Tomorrow, it could be absolutely anyone. . “
CNN’s Daniela Diaz contributed to this report.
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