The mother of professional basketball star Karl-Anthony Towns was placed in a medically induced coma after showing symptoms of the new virus from China.
Towns, a center for the Minnesota Timberwolves, said in a video late Tuesday night that his mother was hospitalized last week and has health complications from what he believes is COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Jacqueline Cruz is in a medically induced coma. A ventilator is providing assistance to her, Towns said.
Towns said he and his sister pressured their mother to seek medical attention after she began feeling unwell.
“I don’t think anyone really understood what it was, with deteriorating condition. She kept getting worse, she kept getting worse, and the hospital was doing everything they can,” he said.
Cruz’s fever would go down after taking medications but “spike back up during the night,” Towns said, and her lungs kept getting worse.
The family had hopes she was finally getting better in recent days before things “went sideways quick.”
Cruz had to be placed on a ventilator before being put into the coma, Towns said, adding that he spoke with her just before that happened.
“She was telling me things I didn’t want to hear so—I dismissed some things she was saying because it wasn’t something I want to hear. It came to a point where it’s difficult. It’s been very difficult for me and my family, to say the least. She’s the head of our household. She’s the boss,” Towns said.
“Since that day, I haven’t talked to her, haven’t been able to obviously communicate with her. I’ve just been getting updates on her condition. It’s rough, and day by day we’re just seeing how it goes. We’re being positive; I’m being very positive. So I’m just keeping the strength up for everybody and my family.”
Relatives told Towns to make a video to highlight the seriousness of the new illness.
“Please protect your families, your loved ones, your friends, yourself. Practice social distancing. Please don’t be in places with a lot of people; it just heightens your chances of getting this disease, and this disease ... it’s deadly,” he told followers.
The NBA suspended its season on March 11 after a Utah Jazz player, later confirmed to be Rudy Gobert, tested positive for the CCP virus. Several other players have since tested positive, including Donovan Mitchell of the Jazz, Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics, and two unidentified Los Angeles Lakers players.
The virus has sickened over 55,000 people in the United States, and killed 1.4 percent of the known cases. Experts have noted that the mortality rate is actually lower because of the cases with no or mild symptoms going undetected in the community.
The virus is believed to spread mainly from person to person between people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet) through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs,” it stated.
Touching a contaminated surfaces and then touching your eyes, nose, or mouth is also believed to be a way the virus is spread.
Ways to avoid contracting the illness include avoiding sick people, frequently washing hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, and regularly cleaning objects and surfaces like doorknobs.
