Coronavirus kills Army veteran father of 5, family says

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A Texas family who lost their Army veteran father of five is speaking out to warn others about the dangers of the novel coronavirus after they said it killed him in less than a month. Matthew Law, 35, is described as being healthy prior to his diagnosis, according to Fox 4 News.

“Matt was a big proponent of taking care of himself,” Jennifer Law, Matthew’s high school sweetheart turned wife, told the news outlet. “Healthy. No underlying conditions whatsoever. He was happy to go to the doctor and get checked out for anything.”

It started in late October when he developed a fever and later tested positive for the virus, according to the news outlet.  Without warning, it progressed to the point where he couldn’t stand or breathe and had to go to the hospital, his wife said. By Nov. 9, he was in the ICU.

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“They said COVID had torn apart his lungs,” Jennifer Law told Fox 4 News. “He will need to stay awhile, probably a week.”

After initially showing promising signs of recovery, Law’s condition worsened.

In an update to her Facebook followers, Jennifer Law had posted on Nov. 27 that Matthew would be placed on a ventilator. In a follow-up post, she said that doctors were looking to transfer Matt to another hospital so that he could receive extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment, but they were concerned that he would not survive the trip.

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“As it stands right now, they are concerned with his neurological state,” she wrote to followers on Nov. 28. “His brain has been deprived of oxygen for so long that they are worried. His liver has started to fail as of this morning. The next thing to go is his heart. He can be kept on artificial support for all these things but that will not save him ultimately.”

He died on Nov. 28, according to his obituary. The couple shared four boys and one girl, ranging in age from 11 to 1 year old.  

Jennifer Law told the news outlet that she lost her smell and sense of taste during a bout with the virus and that her oldest son developed a fever and was tired, but three of his siblings were asymptomatic.

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“I need people to know and understand you are not safe from this,” she told Fox 4 News. “Don’t live life in fear, but take precautions necessary.”

As of Thursday, Texas had tallied over 1.2 million cases of coronavirus and more than 22,300 deaths.