A veteran Santa Rosa police officer died Tuesday of complications caused by the coronavirus, marking the first death from the fast-moving disease in a Sonoma County law enforcement agency.
Detective Marylou Armer was 43 and lived in American Canyon, in Napa County. She had served in the Santa Rosa Police Department for more than 20 years. She was one of the first employees to test positive for COVID-19.
“I cannot stress enough ... stay at home and self-isolate,” said Gov. David Ige. “You need to remain vigilant. We cannot afford to let our guards down."
Authorities said the man who died was a senior citizen who lived on Oahu and had multiple medical issues. The patient was recently hospitalized for an unrelated health reason but subsequently tested positive for the virus.
An emergency room doctor who worked at an Essex County hospital died Tuesday, a week after developing coronavirus symptoms.
Dr. Frank Gabrin, 60, who worked at East Orange General Hospital, woke up March 24 with chest pain and other symptoms, according to his husband.
“He had a lot of coughing and two days ago he was very sick,” Vargas said through tears on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Gabrin woke up saying, “Baby, I can’t breathe,” his husband said.
A 33-year-old Passaic firefighter died from coronavirus complications on Tuesday morning.
Israel Tolentino died from complications after contracting COVID-19. Tolentino, who joined the Passaic Fire Department in December 2018, leaves behind a wife and two children, ages 7 and 9.
Just weeks ago, Sundee Rutter was told she was beating breast cancer. But suddenly she was dying of a different disease, and her six children were saying goodbye -- from the other side of a window.
Rutter, 42, died on March 16 in Everett, Washington, after contracting coronavirus.
Her children, ages 13 to 24, were losing another parent, eight years after their father died. They gathered outside her hospital room, and staff came up with an arrangement to let them talk to her.
"They took a walkie-talkie, and they placed (it) right by her bedside, on the pillow," her son Elijah Ross-Rutter, 20, said.
Looking at her through a window, "We got to say our final words and goodbyes to our mom," he said.
Meanwhile, a 30-year-old high school teacher and baseball coach from neighboring New Jersey succumbed to COVID-19 Monday - after he was discharged from hospital.
Ben Luderer tested positive to the coronavirus last week after his wife, Brandy, was earlier diagnosed with the virus.
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