STUDIO CITY – Vicki Mosher typically works from her home as an accounting manager for a company that staffs trade shows. We first met her back in March, about the time the coronavirus had completely shut down the event industry.
Then, two weeks later, her world changed even more.
“There was one moment and I just started crying in my bed and I remember rocking and just feeling like I knew something really, I was really sick,” Mosher said.
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She began experiencing dizziness, nausea, fatigue and had a fever for 15 days.
“One day I had extreme pains like sharp pains and then there was just all these odd things,” she said.
While her symptoms got worse and dragged on for weeks, friends kept telling her not to worry.
“I had so many people saying [it was] just the flu, you'll be fine, you'll be fine. And pretty soon I just felt people were discounting how bad I felt,” Mosher said.
She became increasingly concerned about what to do. She quarantined herself for three weeks, but then decided to take action.
“I just felt like I needed to get a test because I needed to know,” Mosher said.
She did the drive-through test and was told it would take a few days for the results. A week later, she received a phone call.
“I got a phone call from the L.A. Fire Department and they said, 'You're positive.' And I was like, 'I knew it!'”
Her son Max, whom she lives with, had a slight fever for a few days in early March after a trip to Seattle. She thinks he had the virus and didn't know it and in turn gave it to her. The friends who once doubted the severity of her illness are now grateful she's alive.
“I had one friend call me and she was really upset. That's when I went on on social media and I said, 'I survived the virus,'” said Mosher.
She was laid off from her event job and is not sure what's next. But she's appreciative of what she does have - her life.
“I’m so grateful that you know, I came through this and hopefully I can be of service to other people. But scary to think that it could have ended a different way.”
She's planning to donate her plasma to help others hopefully achieve the happy and healthy ending she has.
The FDA has been working with partners across the U.S. government, the health industry and in academia to expedite the development and availability of ways to treat this novel virus.
One potential treatment is called convalescent plasma and the FDA is encouraging those who have fully recovered from COVID-19 for at least two weeks to contact their local blood or plasma collection center and donate plasma to help others fight this disease.