This story was told by a family member of someone incarcerated at Corcoran.
UCI: And do you know what it was like for him once he tested positive, was it, what was the experience of being sick there, while being positive?
Caller: I mean he said, from what I understand, what he told me he was in segregation. He had nothing, they gave him nothing. He had no type of cleaning supplies, no disinfectants, anything like that to sanitize his cell. Even before going in that room with the inmate that already had it at the time. They wouldn’t give him any type of PPE.
Caller: So yeah, I mean, he got really sick, he had the chills, he had body aches, muscle pains, you know, he had diarrhea, he had these headaches, loss of taste. He couldn’t eat. So, I mean, he went, he went through a lot, from what I understand, he told me, “I haven’t got it yet, I’m thankful.” But he said that it was something that he had never experienced before, you know, he had the flu a number of times, other illnesses and nothing had compared to what it felt like when he contracted COVID.
UCI: That must’ve been very scary for him, I imagine.
Caller: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, he thought that he was gonna die. He thought that, you know, the side effects, and the way he was feeling, I mean, he couldn’t breathe, he was having problems breathing so yeah.
UCI: And what was it like for you during this whole period?
Caller: Just trying to deal, you know, trying to contact the institution. I spoke with the doctor there, they confirmed the dates. He confirmed that the date that he was housed in a, you know, segregated area with COVID inmates, that he was negative and that he gave me the date that he showed up positive.
So, it was stressful for me just to try to reach out to that institution and speak with doctors or speak with staff there to find out his condition because I wasn’t getting anything but letters from the mail through him basically letting me know that he was all right, but this is, you know, weeks after the situation.
So, it was stressful on my part too, you know, and I’m still dealing with it now, I’m still trying to reach out to lawyers. I’m still trying to reach out to staff at that institution to find out why is he still in segregation right now. You know, and I’m reaching out to you guys to basically let you guys know what’s going on there.
And so it’s been stressful on me too, you know, I got a family out here, and we’re dealing with that too. We’re dealing with me getting back to work and, you know, us getting back to normal out here and then I gotta deal with his situation as well, so it’s been very stressful.
UCI: Yeah, I’m very sorry to hear that. Has it been hard, I imagine on other members of your family too, I’m sure it affects a lot of people.
Caller: Oh yeah, it affects everybody that’s around.
