Lockheed employee hospitalized with coronavirus worries it will continue to spread
Anthony Melchor has to take long breaks between sentences to catch his breath. When he speaks, his words are interrupted as he inhales deeply.
“It feels kind of like a burning, itching in my throat,” he said on Tuesday. “You think you’re breathing fine but you know you’re not.”
Melchor is one of eight Lockheed Martin employees who have been diagnosed with COVID-19. He’s been hospitalized since Saturday and doesn’t know when he’ll make it home.
“My oxygen levels aren’t high enough, so they’re waiting for that,” he said.
Late Monday night, Melchor said he couldn’t sleep, so he started a Facebook Live to update his friends and family on his condition. The video opens with him coughing. He’s on a hospital bed, a sheet covering his chest and oxygen tubes coming out of his nose.
“Didn’t want to start off the video like that,” he says jokingly, when he caught his breath. “I just wanted to check in with everybody.”
Melchor, who applies coatings to aircraft, started noticing symptoms on April 4, the same day another Lockheed employee, Claude Daniels, reported he was experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. Daniels later died due to the virus, colleagues have said.
Melchor said he was surprised he became infected, and began to worry when he woke up Saturday with a migraine.
“I don’t ever get them,” he said. “I told my wife I was going to get to bed early, and on Sunday I woke up and was just burning up. I toughed it out Sunday and waited on Monday morning for my primary (doctor) to call me back.”
Melchor got tested around 4:30 that day. His condition worsened, and on Wednesday, his doctor told him the test came back negative. Unhappy with the results, Melchor went to a different urgent care and was approved for another test. The doctor told him that he didn’t look good and wondered if the first test was done correctly, Melchor said.
To test for COVID-19, health care professionals take a long swab and put it in someone’s nostrils until it touches the back of the sinus cavities.
“When she did it, she asked if I felt the first test like I did hers and I said no,” Melchor said. “If you don’t feel like they’re tickling the back of your eyeballs with the swab, they probably didn’t go deep enough into your nostrils.”
On Friday, the second test came back positive. He was admitted to Texas Health Arlington Memorial the next day.
“I have about four different doctors,” Melchor said. “There’s at least one for my kidneys, my lungs, and the fungus doctor.”
In the meantime, Melchor’s wife, Margie, is at home. He hasn’t seen her or his children since he was hospitalized, but his faith is helping him keep his spirits high.
“They don’t have any symptoms, and I’m thankful for that,” he said.
Melchor and several other people who work at Lockheed Martin said the company sent home about 50 employees on Tuesday.
“They are in my department and worked with me,” Melchor said. “I’m afraid it’s a little too late.”
Spokesman Ken Ross said, “We have a strict protocol for situations where an employee is showing symptoms of COVID-19 or is positively diagnosed with COVID-19. We develop an exposure tree to identify other employees who had close contact with the employee and direct them to self-quarantine, and we quarantine and sanitize the work area. Today’s reports are related to those activities.”
Additionally, if the plant learns of probable exposure, work spaces and common areas are professionally cleaned and sanitized.
Melchor said he understands why the Department of Defense has deemed Lockheed an essential business and that everyone there is grateful to be employed. But he’s worried the virus will continue to spread in the plant.
The disease can be transmitted even if someone has mild or no symptoms.
“At what point does humanity kick in and we start thinking morally and ethically?” Melchor asked. “When does that override everything?”
In his Facebook video, Melchor asked his colleagues if they’re really doing their part to make the plant safe.
“Quit pointing the finger,” he said. “The Thursday before last I was spraying down and someone said, ‘Hey, why are you spraying down, that’s not our job title,’ and I said to the guy, ‘If you don’t want to sanitize that’s on you but please don’t stop me from doing what I know is right.’ So I’m asking you guys at work, pick up that sanitizer bottle.”
Melchor said he doesn’t feel the company has done its job to protect employees. A petition asking for the plant to shut down and pay employees has gotten 4,632 signatures.
“We have the right to walk out,” he said, citing the union. “I don’t want to see no man lose their job. I’m very blessed to have the job I have ... and we need to either make a stand or quit moaning and groaning and making it worse.”
This story was originally published April 14, 2020 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Lockheed employee hospitalized with coronavirus worries it will continue to spread."
