New York’s coronavirus ‘patient zero’ breaks silence to say he thought it was ‘a cough’ as city’s death toll tops 20K – The Sun
A LAWYER dubbed New York's “Patient Zero” says he thought he only had a “winter cough” when he fell ill with Covid-19 as the city's death toll surges past 20,000.
Doctors believed Lawrence Garbuz, 50, had pneumonia when he developed symptoms on February 28 after he infected dozens of others.
Lawrence, who fell into a coma but has since recovered from the respiratory disease, revealed there was “no mention” of the virus by medical staff when he first visited them.
He told NBC's Today Show: “I just thought it was a cough. A winter cough and quite frankly, I'm not certain that any of the sort of medical staff had been thinking about that initially when they examined me.”
The 50-year-old family man infected countless others while commuting from his home in Westchester County on the Metro North train into his law firm in Manhattan.
He also visited a synagogue in New Rochelle where members have been struck down with the killer bug.
I just thought it was a cough. A winter cough…
His wife Adina revealed the first words her husband spoke when he woke from his coma.
She said: “He was just himself. The first words he said to me were, 'I love you'”.
Lawrence, who had not travelled abroad recently, had returned from Miami, Florida when he first fell ill on February 28.
His neighbour, who has since been diagnosed as well, drove him to the New York Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville when he began to have trouble breathing.
He was eventually moved to intensive care when his condition worsened after doctors initially thought he was suffering from pneumonia.
The lawyer was eventually diagnosed with Covid-19 four days later on March 2.
Officials then began retracing his steps to make contact with people Lawrence had met in the previous days and weeks.
It soon emerged that members of his family, his friends, his colleagues, medical staff who had treated him and members of the Temple Young Israel of New Rochelle synagogue had all contracted the disease.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo revealed at the end of March that Lawrence had been discharged from hospital.
He said: “The 'patient zero' – what we call patient zero in Westchester, New Rochelle – who was very sick for a very long time, he has actually gone home.”
Lawrence's case prompted authorities to set-up a one-mile containment zone in New Rochelle where the National Guard were drafted in to help with cleaning public spaces and to deliver food to homes.
New York's death toll from the coronavirus surged to 20,828 last Thursday as the number of deaths nationwide near 80,000.
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