Man who survived coronavirus says he waited days to be tested

KING COUNTY, Wash. — A Federal Way man said he got sick at the Auburn aerospace company where he works. Then he had to wait more than two weeks before he was tested for the coronavirus.

That test came back positive. He was sent to the hospital twice before he was allowed to stay.

Shawn Ryan said he got sick back on March 19. He stayed five hours into his shift before he finally told his boss he had to go home.

But it took 2 1/2 weeks for him to be sent to Tacoma General Hospital to be treated.

“I’ve been a very healthy person all my life,” said Ryan. But of the coronavirus, he said: “Oh my, my, my. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.”

The 59-year-old spoke from his hospital room in Tacoma. By the time he got there, he says he was sicker than he has ever been.

“I hadn’t ate anything at all,” he said. “And I was viciously dizzy and weak.”

He said he went twice to the Kaiser-Permanente clinic in Tacoma before he was tested for COVID-19. He was sent home twice before he got a positive result and was transferred to Tacoma General.

That was last Sunday, nearly three long weeks after he left work sick from his job at Sekisui Aerospace company, formerly AIM Aerospace, in Auburn.

He thinks his health care provider dropped the ball.

“When I first went in, I think they should have tested me right there,” he said. “But they didn’t. I had to return about four days later and come in with a 102-degree temperature before they tested me.”

But he said since his diagnosis, the treatment he received saved his life.

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “If I hadn’t gotten this, I know I would be dead.”

Kaiser-Permanente sent a statement. It said in part: “At this time we are providing COVID-19 testing to Kaiser-Permanente Washington patients who meet public health testing criteria.”

The statement goes on to say, “we continue to recommend patients ... first, call their care provider for initial assessment.”

Ryan has improved so much, he said he could be released from the hospital Sunday, happy that his worst fear -- that COVID-19 might kill him -- did not come to pass.

© 2020 Cox Media Group