This story was told by a person incarcerated at Cois M. Byrd Detention Center.
Caller: So, I go over here and before I get housed, I’m in the holding center, I’m in a holding cell. There’s, like, ten of us in there. And there’s this guy coughing, and coughing, and coughing and he came from the streets.
And we’re like, what the hell. But, we had our mask on, but still they ram packed us up in this cell when there’s only supposed to be, like, four people in a cell especially in closed parameters. But, there was at least 10, 11 people in the cell. And they’re bringing people in from the streets.
So, I already been in for, like, five months and I’m like, alright, this ain’t cool, you know what I mean. So, everybody’s trying to, like, mask up and do our thing, but you only can do so much because we don’t know how this is getting in the air or if it can get your eyeballs or it can get anywhere. We don’t know.
But, all I know is I went for surgery, like, a few days later because I had a little retinal detachment, and I went to the hospital and they tested me positive for COVID and they didn’t even let me in the hospital where I tried.
You know, they send me back and they’re like, oh, you got COVID. And I was like, what. And they were like, yeah, you can’t have your-we can’t put you to sleep, we can’t put you down and do your surgery because you got COVID. And I’m like, well, that ain’t my fault, how did I catch COVID because I was-we were following all protocols while we’re in the facility.
Like, come out, like, two people a day at of their room, you know, every 15 to half an hour. We got to wear our mask. So, everybody was following protocol, but, I mean, when I got sent to the holding cell, I don’t know, that’s probably when I got it. Because, I mean, there was this guy – you can’t tell when someone is just coughing, but when this guy’s coughing he’s like, oh, you coming from the streets.
I’m like, did you test for COVID? And they’re like, no, well, they didn’t test me. So, we’re kind of like, alright, whatever. But, when I did catch it I was up here in medical, and over here with my eyeball blind, and then they’re like, hey, you know what, you can’t have surgery for another three weeks.
And then I was like, oh, it’s not this serious, you know, like, cool, whatever, I just didn’t panic. And then, like, two days later that’s when I lost my taste, my smell, and everything else, you know. And I was just, like, shaking. And it just felt, like, robotic, man. Like, I felt like something was inside of my chest.
Like, it was so icy cold but, like, I can’t explain it. Like, you know, like, it was weird, like, but it did feel like something I never felt before in my life. Like, I was like, okay, this is dangerous right here. And it was like that for, like, three or four days and I got my smell and my taste buds back and everything.
And it lingered in my system for a while because after that I got surgery three weeks later and they’re like, oh, we’re following protocols so everybody was masked up in the hospital. You know, and then they fixed my eye, but they already did too late. They delayed my surgery because of COVID-19.
And they said, oh, you can’t really sue us for nothing because, you know, everybody’s going through it right now. You know, they’re pushing everybody out the hospital because they don’t know what the anesthetic’s going to do with the people that are on, like, you know, with COVID.
They don’t know what the cause and effect will be, you know. I was like, okay, whatever. And then, I’ve been up here since last year. But, I tried to go for my second surgery and every time I went to the hospital, like, they’ll be like, you’re still testing positive. And I’m like, how, you know and then.
