Yet another instance showing the constraints faced by the U.S Health department in tackling the Coronavirus situation, Sturgeon Simpson was tested positive last Saturday for COVID-19. He explained the ordeal he faced to get tested even though he was showing symptoms for almost a month.
The rapid increase in positive COVID-19 cases on the verge of touching 600000 with death toll soaring to 20000 left the country in a helpless situation to restrict the tests to the emergency and high-symptomatic patients. Many Americans with minimal symptoms aren’t tested for the coronavirus because of the limited testing of kids and healthcare professionals. The country music star Sturgeon Simpson was among one of those people who took to Instagram to share his ordeal.
Simpson detailed his symptoms and how difficult it was for him to get tested.
“They pulled the plug on our tour March 12 and I returned home. This photo was taken at 9 am on March 13th when my wife took me to our local hospital ER due to chest pains, fever, and pre-stroke blood pressure levels. I spent an hour listening to a (highly condescending) Doctor refuse to test me because I ‘did not fit testing criteria’ and tell me why it was impossible that I had contracted the virus due to its extreme rarity and that it was not in western Europe yet during that same period (which we now know is incorrect) even though I was told by two nurses that I was the first person their hospital had walk-in requesting to be tested,” Simpson posted.
“Yesterday on Friday April 10th, after almost one month without any symptoms, I received a call from the Nashville CDC stating that my test resulted in a positive detection for Covid-19. My wife (who has been by my side since Europe) tested negative. I should also add that the CDC nurse I spoke to yesterday told me that it reacts differently in a case by case basis and the White House briefings and the information they are providing is basically pure speculation causing fear and that the only thing anybody knows is that we don’t really know much yet. All I know is I first felt symptoms a month ago yet I’m still positive and contagious and now on quarantine in the dojo until April 19th and really wishing I’d taken my wife’s advice and put a bathroom in the floor plans..live and learn.”
“At least our Government-appointed task force headed by a man who does not believe in science is against mass testing and we now have a second task force in the works to ‘open America back up for business’!” he wrote.
“There are sometimes people in this life that you meet, seldom and few and far between it would seem, whose souls are so good and pure and beautiful that when they leave it seems if only for a brief while that everything else good and pure and beautiful in this world just left along with them,” he wrote alongside a photo of the pair on a motorcycle. “It blows you apart leaving everyone to see you broken. But then you come out of the woods and the funk to see the signs of Spring all around you and remember the joy and love they put into the world by always giving so much of themselves and you suddenly see them everywhere.”
“There is so much I never said only because I didn’t want to bother you with it. After all you never asked to be ‘John Prine.’ There is so much I’ll never get to say now. You reminded me so much of my Grandfather it hurt sometimes. I never told you that,” Simpson added. “I will miss the tours.. I will miss our lunches.. I will miss you listening to me bitch and complain about all the things you understood all too well and making me feel better sometimes by just sitting there saying nothing.
The singer concluded, “I will miss catching flies in mid-air with my hand just to make you laugh.. I will miss showing up to the office and knowing Id just missed you there by finding my drums upside down.. I will miss your corny ass jokes. I will miss you. Every day. So long old man. You will always be loved.”
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