12 Members Of An OKC Metro Family Infected With COVID-19

A dozen members of a metro family were infected with COVID-19. Two of their loved ones were hospitalized with severe symptoms.

LaTonya Jacobs was one of them. She was a physical therapist at St. Anthony Hospital in downtown Oklahoma City and thinks that was where she contracted the virus.

Jacobs and her husband Titus Jacobs were released from St. Anthony hospital in July. The initial symptoms hit Jacobs hard.

“I felt the joint paint, I felt the muscle pain, I felt the headache, I felt everything,” said LaTonya Jacobs, COVID survivor. “So I called my husband and I said I have COVID and he said, 'come home. If I’m going to die, I’m going to die with you.'”

A few days later, Tonya Jacobs said she could not breath and was admitted into the hospital. Despite her husband trying to tough it out, he wound up in a room with her.

“So basically I was kind of slowly dying and I didn’t know it,” said Titus Jacobs, COVID survivor. “I had the constant coughing, coughing up blood, couldn’t breathe.”

Because of Tonya Jacob's medical background, she requested her doctor give her a drug called Lasix. She credited the drug to clearing her lungs and saving her life.

“Lasix can be damaging if you take it, take too much of it,” said Tonya Jacobs. “He said, 'Tonya, I’m just going to monitor your labs every day.'”

Jacobs and her husband were eventually able to walk the hospital halls but said COVID nearly destroyed their lungs.

They are thankful everyone in their family has survived.

“It’s a wicked disease and just the reality of knowing you’re slowly dying and there’s nothing you can do about it,” said Titus Jacobs. “It’s just, it’s just mind boggling.”

Titus Jacobs said he experienced a rash and some cognitive and speech delays after coming home from the hospital.