Healthy 24-Year-Old Detroit Man Died 12 Days After Showing COVID-19 Symptoms

Healthy 24-Year-Old Detroit Man Died 12 Days After Showing COVID-19 Symptoms
A State of Michigan Department of Health and Human Services office that is currently closed due to COVID-19 in Detroit, Mich., on March 26, 2020. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)
Lorenz Duchamps
4/6/2020
Updated:
4/6/2020

A few weeks ago, a healthy 24-year-old young man from Michigan with no previous underlying health conditions suddenly experienced some physical complications.

Ben Hirschmann, from the Detroit suburb of Roseville, suddenly got what seemed to be COVID-19 symptoms and died just 12 days later, dropping dead in his parent’s living room, FOX2 reported.
The young man’s mother, Denise Hirschmann, shared her story with news outlet WXYZ and said her son had a video appointment with a doctor who told Ben he had to self-quarantine since he seemed to be having COVID-19 symptoms.

Denise said the symptoms her son was having did not get better, so he made another appointment with the doctor on March 31.

The doctor told the young man again to stay home and self-quarantine. He said the symptoms Ben had were probably due to a cold and prescribed him some cough medicine.

The next morning at 6:30 a.m. on April 1, Ben died and an autopsy showed he passed away from acute pneumonia, a symptom of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

Denise said his son woke up that morning and told her he wanted to go to the hospital, so Denise called 911.

“I got him out into the living room sat him down and he coded, his eyes went into the back of his head and I started CPR EMS got here they could not revive,” Denise told FOX2.

“His lungs were filled with disease,” she said. “How would I ever know that the next day my son would be dead.”

Ben was denied a test for the CCP virus. His father told FOX2 that if medical officials would have intervened when he was feeling unwell and showing these symptoms, his life could have been saved.

Denise said the way doctors are currently being forced to treat patients, not seeing them in person but via a video appointment, is putting everyone at risk.

She told WXYZ that Ben’s father, a two-time cancer survivor with lung disease, is now also showing symptoms from the virus and is getting the same instructions from doctors as her son.

“It shouldn’t be, lock everyone up and then when they’re ready to die take them to the hospital and hope we have a ventilator,” she told FOX2.

Ben worked as a political intern for state Senator Pete Lucido of Macomb County, was heavily involved in the Republican Party, and loved politics.

Senator Lucido said Ben “was a wonderful individual who cared about people and wanted to make sure people were taken care of.”

Lucido said he is currently working on finding a way for doctors to get better access to patients and proposed drive-ups to check patients, but said that there are many challenges during the pandemic, especially in getting the required staff.