SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — The saga continues with a Santa Clarita couple on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan where more than 600 people got sick and two passengers died from COVID-19.
That’s the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Carl Goldman who owns a radio station in Santa Clarita was being treated in a highly specialized bioquarantine CDC facility in Omaha, Nebraska. He tested positive for the virus.
His wife Jeri tested negative but is also under quarantine. Late Thursday, they both spoke to Spectrum News 1 via FaceTime.
Despite his positive diagnosis, Carl kept a positive attitude. “There is no sense sitting here saying, 'oh me oh my…' In a couple days I’m going to hit my 67th birthday,” Carl said.
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He is being isolated from everyone spending his days in bed in a sealed room. His room is inside a biocontainment unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center only used once before to quarantine an Ebola patient. In this top-level medical facility, he is not getting medicine but is getting every flavor of Gatorade they make.
“This virus is still so new and there is no cure for it at this point, so there is no antibiotic, no IV’s, not even an aspirin. I’m getting Gatorade,” Carl said.
His health is being closely monitored, and he doesn’t feel sick.
“I’m feeling fine, a little fatigued, still have a cough, but the good news now is the fever has been gone for over two days,” he said.
It all started during what was a dream vacation with his wife and a couple of friends from Utah.
They set sail on January 20. On the last day of the cruise, they learned a passenger had the coronavirus and everyone had to be tested.
“The next morning, we learned that 10 people had the virus and that is when they made the decision to quarantine us and keep us in our cabins for 14 days. In retrospect that was probably the biggest mistake the Japanese government could possibly make. The ship was like a giant Petri dish,” Carl said.
After 12 days of quarantine, the Americans were told they were going home.
“I got on the bus… was feeling fine had a little dry cough, but I thought that was from the air conditioning of the Diamond Princess and being cooped up for 12 days. I then got on the plane… I dozed off. Two hours later I woke up with a very, very high fever,” Carl said.
“Carl is just burning up and it’s like uh oh,” his wife Jeri recalled.
Jeri said that was the moment she separated from her husband. She’s also in quarantine right now in a different wing of the Nebraska hospital. It is when they got to Omaha she was the most concerned.
“Carl could barely walk and that’s when I was like, 'Oh gosh. Houston we’ve got a problem,'” she said.
Though he’s felt better for days, Carl understands why it is so important he remains in such a high level of quarantine seeing the virus spread firsthand.
“You can have the virus for four, five, six days and not realize you have it. It comes on very very fast. There is also no rhyme or reason to who is getting the virus and who isn’t,” he said.
At this time, his release date is March 2 if all further testing is negative.
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“They are not going to release me until they are 100 percent sure that I don’t have the virus and I’m not going to spread the virus," he said.
Jeri and Carl never could have dreamed their vacation plans would include a stay in Omaha, but Carl is getting a souvenir from the medical staff who aren’t so fond of his Michigan (where his oldest child attends school) sweatshirt.
“They I think are going out tonight and getting a Nebraska one,” he joked.
He says he will be happy to have it. It won’t be a reminder of his time feeling sick but feeling genuinely cared for.
The woman from Utah the Goldmans were traveling with tested positive while they were still on the ship and was treated in Fukushima, Japan. You can check out Carl’s extensive day-to-day account on his blog on his radio station’s website.