MOOSIC, Pa. — Heather Mollo of Moosic says she and her husband Louis Marengo are on day 11 of a coronavirus nightmare. For the past three days, they've been separated, with Louis being cared for at Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton. Heather is self-quarantining at home.
"It's horrible, we video chat all the time, but it's not the same," Heather said.
Heather says Louis first started showing symptoms about a week and a half ago -- a fever and difficulty breathing, made worse by his asthma. He took a test for coronavirus and was able to manage at home until Sunday.
"Sunday morning when he woke up, and he couldn't breathe, he took his nebulizer twice, back to back, because that's what they've been telling him to do. And he still couldn't breathe, the fact that he felt like he was suffocating," explained Heather.
Heather says Louis is 44 and otherwise healthy. She felt helpless Sunday morning and called an ambulance.
"We call 911, and the ambulance comes, he still hasn't gotten his test results," added Heather. "The ambulance came, they put their white, they had their suits on, took him to the hospital put him in an isolation room."
At the hospital, Louis was tested again, and the result came back positive for coronavirus. Louis is expected to stay in the hospital until he can breathe on his own, and he has no fever for a few days.
Heather says they believe he picked up the virus at work. Louis is a welfare caseworker at the state office building in downtown Scranton.
"We both reached out to people and told them what's going on," Heather said. "His work has their own Facebook page. He's gone on and let people know as soon as he got diagnosed that he was positive for it."
Heather is dealing with some symptoms as well but is still waiting for the results of her coronavirus test. She's staying home and waiting for when she and Louis both feel better and can be together again.