Some families chose to share their stories with the Journal-News, which provided windows into the struggle they faced.
Middletown girl featured nationally
Dorielis Reyes, 9, died Aug. 19 after a battle against a series of ailments that included COVID-19. She had first been admitted to the hospital in May, when she complained the left side of her body was weak.
Her mother, Doranny Paula, told her story from outside of her hotel room in the days before Dorielis died.
“It’s so hard,” Paula said at the time. “You never expect your kid, so young, to get this sick.”
Dorielis was later featured in an issue of “People” magazine that showcased a personal story from each state.
ICU nurse forced to watch father die from outside room
Lindsey Fairchild knew about the impact of coronavirus as an Intensive Care Unit nurse in Florida. She was at work caring for a COVID-19 patient when a nurse at Atrium Medical Center called to say her father, Wayne Oney of Middletown, would need to be put on a ventilator in his fight with COVID-19.
“I knew what that meant for us,” she told the Journal-News following his death. “It means dying alone without your family by your side.”
Oney had possibly been infected while watching his daughter, a student at Kettering Alter High School, play on her junior Olympic volleyball team.
He died on Nov. 8 and 69. Fairchild shared her story widely to call out the struggled for families who can’t sit with their loved ones in their final days and moments if they have COVID-19.
“Torture” is how she described watching her father’s final breaths. “As a nurse, I want to help people, sit at their bedside. But I couldn’t. It makes you want to break the door down. You want to visit so badly, but you know this virus is so deadly. It was a very crippling feeling to have.”
Reporter battled coronavirus for 8 weeks
Reporter Mike Rutledge of the Journal-News felt nauseous was driving from one assignment to another on Oct. 7. Soon, he was diagnosed with COVID-19, and for the better part of the next two months, he was working to regain his health.
That included a hospital stay that very nearly included a ventilator.
“My body felt like it was being split in half vertically, with my lungs and stomach suffering the worst of it,” he wrote in his first-person account.
He never went on that ventilator and learned that his oxygen levels improved when lay on his stomach. Weeks more of recovery were necessary, but he returned to work in December.
Pastor shares husband’s fight
After testing positive for the coronavirus and not eating for two weeks, the husband of Darlene Bishop Driscoll, pastor of Solid Rock Church, recovered in August.
“This has been the hardest two weeks of my life,” she told the congregation during an emotional 45-minute sermon after his recovery. “We have been in the storm of our life.”
Her husband, Phil Driscoll, 72, an accomplished musician who often plays at the church, thought he had kidney stones until he tested positive for COVID-19. She said he was in “such a weak state” that he was hospitalized.
Woman’s story shows how quickly spread can happen
During his coronavirus briefing of Nov. 24, Gov. Mike DeWine invited Susan Norvell of Middletown to share her family’s story, which was an example of how innocent actions can lead to quick spread.
A month before, Susan Norvell, who works in the Middletown MidPointe Library System, believes she was exposed to COVID-19 while eating lunch with a co-worker. Norvell said the library follows all the health mandates and every employee must pass a health assessment before work.
But on that day, it was raining, so Norvell ate in the break room instead of in her car. She tested positive for the coronavirus a few days later. Then her husband, Keith, and her twin daughters, Sarah Fisher and Allison Fisher, tested positive.
She and her daughters recovered, but her husband faced a hospital fight.
“It’s devastating,” she told the Journal-News. “I’m in the most terrifying place staring at my husband, fighting for his life.”
West Chester Twp. fire chief faced hospital stay
Rick Prinz, the West Chester Twp. fire chief, began feeling ill in late October, and his trip to the hospital led to a stay of nearly two weeks as he struggled with the effects of COVID-19.
Prinz’ long-time girlfriend and WLWT-TV reporter Karin Johnson said the experience was “like a rollercoaster. One day he had energy and thought the worst had past, the next he was knocked down again. By day eight, all he was doing was sleeping and I mean all day and night long.”
In May, There were six firefighters who tested positive from one crew at Fire Station 74 on Beckett Road. At that time Prinz told the Journal-News his department’s morale was already low due to the pandemic.
“They’re scared, they’re frustrated, they’re tired, they’re over it just like everybody else,” Prinz said then. “Then this virus plants itself in their faces. It definitely adds to the stress.”
Butler County COVID-19 impact
193: Deaths
24,645: Total cases
821: Hospitalizations
March 11: First case reported
March 29: First death
40: Average age of confirmed cases
6.43: Percentage of Butler County population confirmed to have COVID-19
*Through Dec. 26
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