Arlington family shares ‘uncertainty’, ‘great fear’ after young sons develop COVID-19
An Arlington family’s “great fear” came to fruition when two of their three children tested positive for novel coronavirus. Now, the family is quarantining together at home — while urging others to heed public health experts’ warnings.
Jeff and Catherine Carlton brought Scott, 11, to Cook Children’s Medical Center after Scott became constipated, experienced daily retching and had his fever surpass 102 degrees Fahrenheit, according to a news release from the hospital.
“This had been our great fear since mid-March,” Jeff Carlton, executive director of media and communications at UT Arlington, said in the release. “Scotty has numerous underlying medical conditions that make him susceptible. If there’s a cold out there, Scotty will catch it.
“For Scotty, COVID-19 can be a death sentence. We’re frightfully aware that it still could be.”
The next day, their youngest son, 9-year-old Jeffrey, tested positive for coronavirus as well, along with a nurse who looks after Scott during weekdays.
The family of five is now under quarantine together with their sons and their daughter, Jenna. The Carltons said they can neither send Jenna away because she may be asymptomatic, nor can they visit the children’s grandparents down the street.
According to Cook Children’s, the family must quarantine for at least 24 days — around 10 days after the boys’ diagnoses and an additional 14 days if the boys remain fever-free over the weekend.
In the meanwhile, the Carltons are practicing social distancing to keep Jenna safe. Catherine Carlton, director of communications for My Health My Resources of Tarrant County, said in the news release that the rest of the family remains healthy, “though we’re afraid of every sniffle and cough.”
“It was just too much to take – the fear, the uncertainty, the logistics of care,” she said. “We realistically prepared ourselves for the what-if possibility of Scotty getting COVID. We never considered what might happen if we had to face more than one case at a time in the house.”
“Our worst fears are too terrible to talk about,” Jeff Carlton said. “But a secondary fear is that both Catherine and I get sick at the same time — or worse. That’s something that’s nearly impossible to prepare our family for.”
The boys are improving every day, according to the press release. Scott still has problems with retching and requires supplemental oxygen, and Jeffrey has spent several days with a diminished sense of smell and taste, fatigue and fever. Jeffrey also has also experienced brief “mysterious headaches” that last for several minutes.
The family told Cook Children’s they were experienced after going through 11 years of caring for Scott during medical crises, and grateful for their support system of friends, family and neighbors.
“We’re probably better equipped than a lot of families to handle some of this, but how do other families find that balance?” Catherine asked. “This is difficult and scary in the abstract and terrifying up close. There’s so much we don’t know.”
Catherine and Jeff said they remained discouraged by misinformation about and the public skepticism toward the severity of the disease.
“It’s important to tune out the noise and listen to the health experts,” Catherine said. “We don’t know all the answers. But we know this is real, and we don’t want others to live this nightmare.”
