SAN JOSE – Doctors had told Sgt. Family of Gilbert Polanco that it could happen at any moment. And on Sunday, the San Quentin correctional agent who carried coronavirus died inside the prison walls of the nation’s worst outbreak.
‘He was my best friend. He was my mother’s true love, ”said Polanco’s 22-year-old daughter, Selena. “He was just a great man in every way.”
Gilbert Polanco, 55, a native of San Jose, has been in the hospital since July 3 and has been intubated for weeks.
Of the 261 staff members infected by the virus in the San Quentin prison, Polanco is the first to die and the employee of the 9th Correction to die from the virus in California. Of the 2,231 San Quentin residents infected with the virus, 24 have died.
San Quentin was virus-free until state prison officials made the wrong decision to take over 121 inmates from the state prison in Chino, where an outbreak took hold. Some 25 tested positive for the virus after arriving at San Quentin on May 30 and spreading it from there.
“Sergeant Gilbert Polanco is an example of the best of CDCR and his passing saddens us all,” California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Ralph Diaz said in a statement Sunday. “His dedication to public service is not forgotten.”
Acting San Quentin Warden Ron Broomfield said “our hearts are broken.”
“Sgt. “Gilbert Polanco demonstrated extraordinary dedication and courage as a peace officer working the front line every day during this devastating pandemic,” Broomfield said in a statement. ‘His memory is held in the hearts of all men and women who continue to fight this deadly virus in San Quentin. We mourn with his family and pray for their peace and comfort in the midst of their unforgettable loss. ”
When dozens of prison guards fell ill with the virus, Polanco worked extra shifts to help out. He commutes every day from his home in San Jose. He started having a cough on Father’s Day, June 17th.
The Polanco family, including his son Vincent, recently home of a U.S. military base in South Korea, said they had been feeling hopeful for the past few days. Doctors at Kaiser Permanent Medical Center San Jose had begun a plasma treatment and discontinued steroids. For the first time in 10 days, they were able to position him on his back, Polanco’s wife, Patricia Polanco, had told this news organization.
“He’s not out of the woods yet,” the doctors had told her. “These are baby steps.”
But just before Sunday morning, “his heart just stopped,” Selena said.
“He was everything,” said Selena of the San Jose family. “I can go on forever, but it really hurts.”
