Luis Parrilla took all the right safety precautions.
The Davis Fire Department captain, whose job puts him in daily contact with medical patients, religiously followed the measures his department put in place as the coronavirus pandemic made its mid-March ascent.
That included frequent cleanings of the fire stations and equipment, wearing personal protective equipment and having one crew member make initial contact with people they encountered at incident scenes. As captain, Parrilla took on that role.
“We went on a lot of medical calls, a lot of (people with) flu-like symptoms,” Parrilla said in a Wednesday interview. “Everyone had COVID-19 on their minds.”
Knowing a couple of fellow firefighters had tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days, “I took that extra step to be careful,” Parrilla said, even distancing himself from his wife and children at home.
On April 1, Parrilla learned that a firefighter he’d shared duty with several days before had contracted COVID-19 as well. A friend encouraged him to go to urgent care to get himself tested, even though he felt fine.
Parrilla tested negative for the flu, but the coronavirus test results wouldn’t be known for five to seven days, he was told. Due back to work on April 4, he decided he wouldn’t go in until the results came back.
The following day is when everything changed.
“This virus is no joke,” said Parrilla, who spent six days hospitalized with his own bout of COVID-19. He shared his story with The Davis Enterprise to urge the public “to take this super seriously. I didn’t think I was going to get it, and I got it. Any one of us can get it.”
Symptoms set in
For Parrilla, the morning of April 3 began with chills and body aches, and fatigue later set in. The next day brought more of the same, as well as a loss of appetite and perspiration as his fever spiked to 104 degrees.
“It was unbelievable, the amount of sweat I had,” Parrilla said. The same symptoms persisted for two more days, prompting him to contact his doctor on April 6. “The doctor thought all signs pointed to COVID-19.”
He advised Parrilla to seek an evaluation at a remote tent clinic, where he got a second coronavirus test and X-ray that showed congestion in his chest. He returned home, where two days later he developed a dry cough. A call to his doctor elicited continued concerns.
Parrilla’s wife urged him to go to the hospital “and I was refusing,” he said, largely due to the upcoming Easter holiday his family cherishes. Then came the mental decline — Parrilla’s belief that George Bush was president of the United States and “I was talking to myself, talking to my own body. All I wanted to do was sleep.”
The next day, April 9, Parrilla met with his doctor by Zoom video.
“I need to you to go back to that tent clinic,” the doctor told Parrilla, who drove there himself while his wife took a separate car. There, his pulse suddenly ramped up from 80 beats per minute to 150, while his blood oxygen level dove from 96 to 89 percent.
“You need to go to the emergency room right now,” a clinic doctor told him, Parrilla recalled. “Of course I’m fighting, saying ‘I’m fine.’ But I thought the end was near.”
‘Prayers and faith’
Parrilla went straight to Mercy Hospital in Folsom. Although he has little memory of being admitted, he recalled being wheeled to a designated COVID-19 unit walled off with plastic sheets that elicited images of the movies “Outbreak” and “The Hot Zone.”
“The doctor came in looking like an astronaut” clad in protective gear, said Parrilla, who finally learned that day he’d tested positive for COVID-19. He also developed pneumonia and a low white blood cell count.
His treatment included the antibiotic azithromycin and anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, plus additional antibiotics for the pneumonia. Fortunately, he said, he never required the use of a ventilator.
“Thanks to a lot of prayers and faith, after two days I started feeling better,” Parrilla said. “I never thought I’d be there for six days.”
He spent Easter in the hospital, but his Davis Fire Department colleagues made sure his wife and kids still enjoyed a festive holiday.
“(Chief) Joe Tenney and the crew, they made Easter for my family,” bringing Easter baskets filled with goodies, Parrilla said.
Parrilla got discharged from the hospital on April 15, though his doctor urged him to spend another two weeks in isolation from his loved ones. The city of Davis covered the cost of a hotel room, under a previously reached agreement by City Manager Mike Webb, Tenney and Police Chief Darren Pytel to provide rooms for first responders who become symptomatic or COVID-19 positive.
“It was unbelievable being outside, seeing the sun,” Parrilla said of his release. He returned home to his family on Wednesday, after getting an early all-clear from the El Dorado County health director.
“I’m doing a lot better,” added Parrilla, who’s still experiencing congestion and undergoing breathing treatments at home. “I’m looking forward to going back to work.”
One of several chalk messages that greeted Davis fire Capt. Luis Parrilla outside his home after his discharge from the hospital and week in isolation while recovering from COVID-19. Courtesy photo
Going forward
When that will be, however, is unclear.
“We want to make sure he’s totally healthy,” Tenney said. He noted that the three other firefighters struck with COVID-19 all had only mild cases and have since returned to duty, while several others who felt symptoms ultimately tested negative.
No one has fallen ill since Parrilla, and “hopefully we won’t have any more going forward,” Tenney added. Firefighters continue to follow the county’s health directives to keep the virus at bay and avoid taking it home to their families.
“We do what we can, but we have to keep doing our jobs,” Tenney said.
Paul Doroshov, deputy chief of the Davis Police Department, said his agency so far has avoided any cases of COVID-19, though some employees have reported feeling ill.
“We’ve taken as many measures as we possibly can to minimize exposure,” Doroshov said.
The public should do the same, said Parrilla, who stressed the importance of following health departments’ orders to stay at home and socially distance.
“It’s most likely what saved by family from being sick,” Parrilla said. “If I’m able to do it being on the front lines, the community should be able to do the same thing out there.”
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene