A gay man went into hospital with suspected kidney stones. He came ‘pretty close to dying’ from coronavirus
Kevin and Martin Jones (NBC/Screenshot)
A gay couple both fell seriously ill with COVID-19 after mistaking their original symptoms for kidney stones.
Kevin Jones and his husband Martin contracted coronavirus after Kevin went travelling in Europe with friends in early March.
The group made the decision to cut their trip short due to the sudden and alarming spread of COVID-19, coming home to Oakland, California as the virus took hold.
“When we got back, we thought everything was OK,” Kevin told the Bay Area Reporter.
“They asked questions, took our temperature, and I self-quarantined away from my husband even though we were very careful when we were [in Europe].”
Kevin Jones was rushed to the emergency room.
Just a day after he got home, Kevin developed a fever – but at that point, he believed his symptoms were due to kidney stones.
“The advice nurse suggested I go to the ER,” Kevin said.
“But I thought it was due to kidney stones. When I got there, they wanted me to wait in a tent like you see on the news. At that point they put me in an isolation room and I don’t remember a thing.”
His husband Martin drove him to the hospital and also thought the symptoms were due to kidney stones – but they were quickly proven wrong.
Kevin rapidly became extremely sick, later claiming that he was “pretty close to dying”.
Martin started to experience symptoms too and was tested for COVID-19, and it came back positive.
“I had told the doctor ‘I don’t know if the symptoms are COVID or if this is just anxiety,'” Martin said.
“It was incredible exhaustion. It was difficult breathing – this is asthma on steroids.”
The couple want people to know that the coronavirus ‘is no joke’.
The couple, who have been together for 34 years since they met in a San Francisco gay bar in the 1980s, never thought they would contract COVID-19.
“We want to drive home that this is no joke,” Martin told NBC News earlier this month.
“This is serious and deadly.”
More than 100,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States alone, with more than 1.75 million confirmed cases.
More than 350,000 people have died from the virus worldwide.
