SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - A local marine is recovering from COVID-19 while deployed overseas.
Jennifer Dulaney says her husband, Kyle, was deployed in April and is serving at a base in Okinawa. He tested for COVID-19 earlier this month.
“My husband called me on a Monday morning as I was getting ready for work and said he felt like he was getting symptoms,” Jennifer said.
Kyle got worse and was eventually sent to the ICU. His condition began to worsen that he qualified for the Remdesivir. It was described as an experimental drug, and doctors needed Jennifer’s permission to administer it to Kyle.
Jennifer is a nurse and knew that COVD-19 could be very severe.
“I know where COVID can go, they can spiral downwards real fast,” she said, “so for me, the benefits outweighed the risk.”
Jennifer said he began to show improvement on the fifth day. She was able to him Friday morning.
“They were drawing his lab work because that’s one of the things with the experimental (treatment), they have to watch things very closely,” she described, “but he actually laughed on the phone, he was able to talk to me without coughing. It’s amazing.”
She hopes her husband will be out of the ICU within the next two days.
During the difficult time, Jennifer took a leave of absence from her job. She said it was difficult to continue working as a nurse while worrying about her husband’s health.
So to help with finances, a friend started a GoFundMe for their family. The GoFundMe has received so much more than they expected, she’s going to donate what they don’t spend to a non-profit that helps military families.
“It’s so amazing, so I want to take the amazing, so I wanted to pay it forward,” she said.