ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — 9 Investigates discovered drivers with local transportation companies are among those who have died from COVID-19.
Investigative reporter Daralene Jones found out the Orange County Task Force working on protocols to put in place when the economy reopens will also be looking at the transportation industries that have a lot of direct contact with the public.
Lydia Torres-Garcia didn’t get to sit by her husband’s hospital bed, as he died, unable to breathe, even on a ventilator. His health started to rapidly decline a few weeks earlier.
Luis Soto Rodriguez used the family car to drive for Uber, and one day came home ill.
“He said, ‘I feel tired’ and I said, ‘What’s wrong?’ and he said, ‘I don’t know I feel really tired.’ He said, ‘I think my blood pressure must’ve went down.’ So, when I took his blood pressure, it was 54 over 34, so I said, ‘Oh, my God,’ and then he was passing out,” Torres-Garcia said.
Torres-Garcia said by the time they got to the emergency room, his blood pressure was up again.
“The doctor says we’re going to have to take him, going to have to give him a room because his fever is not going down. That day he said to me, ‘Oh my God I probably got it from Uber’ because that’s what he was doing, driving Uber from the mornings until like 3 p.m., until he picked me up from work and then we would go home,” Torres-Garcia said.
Soto-Rodriguez is at least one of three people who have died from COVID-19 in Orange and Osceola counties who worked a transportation job. His wife said his doctor tried hydroxychloroquine, but it didn’t work, and in fact, made it worse.
“When they gave him the medicine, he was, like, ‘I was so weak couldn’t even pick up the phone’ and that was the last time I saw him on FaceTime,” she said.
Marisol Romero is also still grieving the loss of her spouse.
“It was devastating the way he was just breathing chest was hurting and his body. He said every time he would breathe it would hurt,” Romero said during a lengthy and emotional interview.
Her spouse, Jimmy Santiago, worked for a company responsible for driving rental car employees to and from storage lots at OIA. And he was still doing at a time when there was no protective gear for employees. Romero said he was worried and talked often about not having protection.
Santiago had a medical history of asthma, hypertension. On March 20 when he was admitted to the hospital for shortness of breath and respiratory failure.
He told the nurse he was experiencing fever, chills, vomiting and abdominal pain. He was tested for COVID-19 five days later. And the positive result came back three days later. He spent 11 days in intensive care, but ultimately died on April 1.
“They called me and he said, ‘I need everybody to gather, I need to say something.’ He was, like, ‘I love you guys, I’ll be fine.’ And we all cried, and we prayed, and he accepted the Lord as his own savior. The nurse was really nice, her name was Jessica, and she put the phone by his side and we got to pray,” Romero said.
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