This letter was written by a person incarcerated at Stockton.
As soon as I got to Saint Mary’s, I was told by the heart doctor that I would be having an angiogram procedure, but that I would be getting a COVID-19 test first. Within the hour I came back positive. My breathing had gotten worse and the doctor said I had pneumonia. I also had a fever.
I was given a bunch of antibiotics and vitamins. My heart wasn’t pumping the way it should, so liquid had backed up into my lungs. So I was given medication through an IV to help me urinate every 30 minutes to drain the fluid out of my system.
Within a few days my fever broke and I was feeling so much better. Within five days I was off the oxygen and I was breathing better as well. I still had no sense of taste or smell.
Saint Mary’s needed my bed for some more serious COVID-19 patients, so I was discharged and sent back to the prison. I was surprised that I was not placed in a single cell due to being treated positive for COVID-19, but instead housed back in a dorm.
The following day I caught another fever so the day after that, I was ambulanced to the California healthcare facility. I was given the same medication that I was on when I was at Saint Mary’s hospital, and placed on single cell status. Within days, I was able to be taken off oxygen.
