Santa Barbara surgeon talks about his experience as COVID-19 patient
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- A Santa Barbara plastic surgeon spoke to NewsChannel 3 about his experience as a COVID-19 patient and how it has affected him and his family.
Dr. Wesley Schooler is out of mandatory quarantine as of Friday, but is still staying at home for a bit longer to be safe. He and his family have been sick over the past two weeks.
Schooler does not know where he got the virus, but he says it likely came from traveling earlier this month, even when he was taking precautions and not spending time with anyone who appeared sick.
Schooler calls the virus "insidiously contagious."
"It’s not really from people coughing on you," Schooler said. "You touch things, we know from some studies the virus actually lives on multiple surfaces for up to three days… everything you touch could be potentially infectious."
Schooler began to feel sick at work two weeks ago, experiencing fatigue, nausea, chills and gastrointestinal issues over the next several days. He and his wife would both test positive for the coronavirus, though his wife experienced the more widely-known respiratory symptoms. Later, they both also lost their sense of smell and taste.
Their two children tested negative, but Schooler believes they likely also had the virus as they dealt with a cough during that time.
Schooler says the symptoms are variable in type and severity.
"I think we need to maybe broaden the symptoms," he said. "Any sort of sinus headache, malaise, tired, fatigue, 'something is out of the ordinary,' at this point, I would worry about this virus as a potential cause."
Even as a physician and as someone young and healthy, Schooler became worried.
"It was kind of terrifying knowing that you really don’t know day-to-day if you’re gonna be one of the 80 percent who do fine, or the 20 percent that start to have more severe symptoms," he said.
Schooler offered some good news: he and his family are feeling much better as of Friday. He says strict social distancing is the only option to slow the virus, but that it works.
He also says that once he and his wife, another healthcare professional, are not contagious, they will be back on the front lines fighting the virus.
Schooler says during this crisis, he is on call to help in Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital's intensive care unit with critical care management, if needed.
You can read Dr. Wesley Schooler's full story, in his words, below:
Now that we are nearly over our personal bout with Covid-19, I am compelled to reflect as we brace for the crisis at hand, hopefully to give information, a ray of hope and a warning.
First after training in plastic, hand, general and critical care surgery I had seen my share of disasters from the 1992 Pope AFB plane crash in NC to the recent Thomas fire and mudslide in CA. I had been tracking the Covid-19 pandemic since early February through social media colleagues overseas and in Washington and New York.
We had started to implement screening in the office, removed chairs for distancing and I had been ahead with contact precautions, frequent hand washing and hand sanitizer.
While I still traveled, I was very careful to follow the strictest recommendations. I used hand sanitizer, washed frequently, didn’t touch community coffee or condiments and kept a distance as well as I could.
We had a family trip to Disneyland on March 1st.I flew via LAX to Vail/Beaver Creek March 3-7, and back to Los Angeles for a medical seminar March 7-8 in Beverly Hills.
On Thursday March 12th, while in surgery I had sudden nausea, chills and fatigue. By that night I was exhausted. I usually sleep 5 hours/night and workout 1-2 times per day and help with 2 young children. My wife and I both work. The following day I wore a mask and gloves while seeing clinic patients. At the end of the day I was told that a nearby staff member and doctor were sick with flu symptoms and they had been tested. We were never near each other directly that week but had some shared common work areas but have hand sanitizer stations in every room. I sent an oropharyngeal swab due to continued malaise that evening. We were allotted 5 tests as a medical facility. It took 6 days to get the result back.
Over the weekend I had malaise and mild diarrhea and thought maybe I had contracted a Gi virus from my son who vomited that Friday night.
I had an emergent surgery on call and 2 more cases on Monday before we shut down completely. I never had cough, fever or the “standard” screening signs of Covid-19.
By late on Monday we found out that a visiting relative of staff was positive for Covid-19. They went home out of state and were able to obtain a test result in 30 hours. Over the next week I was confirmed along with one of my staff. Others had a myriad of symptoms ranging from mild sinus congestion to severe nausea and weight loss. We tested our entire staff and luckily all were negative except one with mild symtoms.
I never had a fever or cough. Just nausea, diarrhea and severe malaise and body chills for 8 days. My wife and kids had a progressive worsening cough over the week. The day after I was confirmed, my wife who is in her 40s, a healthcare professional and a healthy runner became dizzy and short of breath. My wife and kids had a low grade fever of 100.5. Our wonderful pediatrician sent tests on all 3. We rode it out. My wife was confirmed with Covid-19. Our children were negative.
I spent 2 days on the phone with the public health department. I called 35 patients, including 5 who had surgery, to tell them about potential exposure. Some had family with chronic conditions and others worked in the public sector. We have a staff member who has a child with leukemia. Luckily now that 3 weeks have passed, none have shown any signs of this virus.
Now I have been released from quarantine and we are all on the mend. I still don’t know where I contracted it. Vail? Patients? The office? Airport? It is already in our community. Denver and Vail have a massive outbreak. Multiple TSA workers have it. Our hospitals are attempting to gear up for it. We are lucky that Santa Barbara is small but has a robust health system and very supportive hospital.
My wife and I have lost the sense of smell/taste and had vice grip pleuritic chest pain that started to subside after 2 weeks. The effects and symptoms of Covid-19 vary widely, from a dry cough, fever to gastrointestinal symptoms and respiratory failure. The 64 year old bar musician at Pepe’s restaurant where we ate in Vail has since passed away from Covid-19. He had other health conditions but was an avid skier.
Learning from this:
1. Covid-19 is not as lethal as other recent pandemic viruses like SARS, H1N1, MERS but it is insidiously extremely contagious. Everyone will get it.
2. Symptoms are variable. 80% will have vague mild symptoms like malaise, headache, nausea. Fever is only present in 40-60%. Nausea, anorexia and diarrhea symptoms occur in 30-40%. “Flu symptoms” at this time should warrant a high suspicion of Covid-19 and quarantine especially if common influenza has been ruled out.
3. This is not the flu or a cold. Dry nonproductive coughs are common. Loss of taste/smell seems to be a common symptom, both early and late.
4. Testing is very slow and needs to be improved to get a handle on the pandemic. Testing is only 70% sensitive, so clinical suspicion should supersede a negative test. A new faster test might be available soon.
5. Severe manifestations of respiratory failure occur in less that 5%, seem to progress rapidly and might only be averted with early intervention. This can occur at any age.
6. Healthcare workers are at extreme risk of contracting Covid-19 and must be protected at all costs including frequent testing, adequate PPE, and early use of trial medication for confirmed or suspected cases.
7. Airborne and contact spread seem impossible to prevent and everything in public is contaminated (glass, plastic, metal, cardboard). Surfaces can harbor Covid-19 for 72 hours.
8. With a relaxation of strict social distancing in less than several months, this could overwhelm even the US health system.
9. While ships were the vector for worldwide spread of the Spanish Flu 100 years ago, airline travel appears to be a major cause for the rapid spread of Covid-19.
10. Social medial has been a great worldwide resource for clinicians to rapidly compare notes and learn about this disease.
With intelligence, a short term sacrifice, public compliance and determination we can withstand this onslaught and return to normal life in a few months. Without social distancing, the US could experience the breakdown of regional and national healthcare networks and a much worse impact on human life and the economy for years to come.
Thanks
Wes
