KINGWOOD — Domenick Marrara Jr. and his wife Sandra were at high risk when they were stricken with COVID-19. But with the support of their family, they are now on the road to recovery.
“I think the main reason we survived was that we had children who took care of us 24/7,” Sandra, known as Sandy, said. “When you’re older like us — I’m 83, he’s 90 — when you’re alone, and you’re both sick, you know you get depressed.”
Lifelong hands-on business owners, the couple was more active than many younger folks.
“Our parents have been living their lives,” daughter Peggy Neilson said. “They have been following the rules. They’re wearing masks when they’re out in public, but … since the first when the pandemic began, they’ve been being with their family, they’ve been seeing people.”
Because of their parents’ age, which put them at risk, their children gave them zinc, vitamin C and vitamin D supplements.
“They’ve been on that since the beginning of the pandemic, and they’ve been enjoying their lives and not been afraid or worrying about the virus,” Neilson said. “And I think that mentally they were in good shape because of that and second because of the supplements we had them on, the virus did not get to the degree in their bodies that it would have.”
A week before the virus came calling, Domenick, also known as Junior, was riding a bicycle in their hometown of Kingwood.
The virus hits
Sandy kept notes of what happened next.
“On Nov. 9, I started feeling sick,” Sandy said. “Jr., he didn’t seem like he was feeling sick. We both had a cold that week, like a head cold. And then by the 15th and 16th, we were both really sick.”
They lost their senses of taste and smell, “and we just couldn’t function at all.”
By Nov. 21, Domenick had deteriorated and the family took him to the hospital emergency room. It was the first time since he had hernia surgery at age 49 he’d been to a hospital.
“He found out he was extremely dehydrated, which is one of the problems with this. You just don’t drink enough water,” Sandy said.
For six to eight hours, he was rehydrated at the hospital with IV fluids and water.
“That week, through Thanksgiving, we were feeling a little better,” Sandy said.
She and Domenick had gone to a drive-thru COVID testing site in Kingwood a few days before Domenick went to the ER.
“The results didn’t come back until Wednesday of the next week,” said Caroline Marrara, one of the couple’s daughters.
“We already were 99.9% sure that it was COVID when they lost their taste and smell,” Neilson said. “We just began operating under that assumption.”
They were very weak, very tired, Sandy said. Each of their children took turns staying with them, Domenick said.
Michel Marrara Blankenship and her boyfriend, Pat Marlatt, were key in the care giving, Caroline said. Marlatt raked leaves and cared for the house, and researched how to lower Domenick’s elevated heart rate.
Because though they are stronger, COVID-19 left a parting gift for both Sandy and Domenick: An elevated heart rate.
“We’re used to being in the 60s and 70s, and we’re more in the 80s and 90s. We have gone up to over 100. He has especially,” Sandy said.
Domenick’s second trip to the Mon Health Preston Memorial emergency room was because of his heart rate. It went as high as 170-180 beats per minute, he said.
Before they went to the hospital, the family had Domenick lie down and put ice on his face, just as the research indicated. That was working pretty well, Caroline said, but his heart rate continued to soar.
“They put a solution in my veins. The first one they put in there didn’t slow it down. With the second one [the doctor] told me, ‘You’ll feel this going into your chest,’ ” Domenick said. “When he put that in my veins, seemed like it was just a matter of maybe 10 seconds, I could feel my heart slowing down to 70 beats a minute.”
Domenick praised Dr. Lorn Wolfe for the care he gave him in the emergency room.
He later saw a heart specialist in Morgantown.
“And he said this is indicative of COVID, that sometimes you are left with an elevated heart rate and sometimes it will go away and go down, and sometimes it won’t,” Sandy said.
Neilsen said the doctor told them all viruses affect the electrical system in the heart, raising the heart rate. “And that will usually go away, it just takes more time,” Neilson said.
Domenick said he was told to keep an eye on his heart rate. If it goes over 100, he is to lie down and put ice on his face.
“It seems like it’s getting a little better every day. The only problem I have is it leaves you weak,” he said.
Domenick’s senses of taste and smell have returned. He lost 10 pounds, during his illness; Sandy lost 12.
Each day Domenick and Sandy feel a little stronger and are more active.
“We’re not used to being sick for three or four weeks. We’re just not,” Sandy said. “And we’re not used to having that strain fatigue.”
Accustomed to getting up at 5:30 or 6 a.m., “One morning we slept until 9! We just don’t feel like getting up,” Sandy said.
Help at home a must
Their children say the advice by some doctors that COVID-19 patients stay home and don’t come to the hospital unless they are sick isn’t always enough.
“That’s not a good policy for people of this age,” Caroline said. “They need more intervention than that. That’s what we learned. You need someone there 24/7, forcing fluids and making sure they were getting their supplements.”
The siblings also contacted SpeakWithAnMD.com.
“They called, and they interviewed our parents completely, and they put them on an important protocol,” Neilson said.
The doctors called prescriptions for steroids, nebulizer treatments and a cough medicine to a local pharmacy.
“It’s very important to have a doctor who has experience with COVID,” Neilson said.
“They literally had every intervention that was possible for them, and that, we believe, was the second major Godsend. And then, of course, we had people praying for them all over the country,” she said.
After seeing her parents’ battle, Caroline and her siblings got a preventive dose of hydroxychloroquine through America’s Front Line Doctors.
“You have a whole new perspective on COVID after someone you love and the most vulnerable people in my world, my parents, that I would worry constantly if they would get sick, get it,” Caroline said.
The importance of having people supporting you can’t be understated, the family said.
“The fact they’ve been a team for 64 years, and they got each other through this too,” Caroline said.
COVID-19 in Preston
The Marraras are not the only seniors in Preston County fighting the disease. Three others in Domenick’s former coffee group have also been infected. All have survived.
As of Friday, the Preston County Health Department reported 919 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county and 105 probable cases. Another death was noted, bringing the county total to 17.
Preston County Schools announced Friday it will go to remote learning until Jan. 4.
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