Family welcomes 99-year-old home from hospital after beating coronavirus
Friends and family lined Betty Draper’s street to cheer as a bright yellow Jeep brought the 99-year-old home after two weeks in the hospital battling Covid-19.
Draper used her walker on Wednesday to get from the carport into her Springfield, Illinois, house.
There were balloons and a huge banner that said, “Welcome Home Betty Jane!” and loved ones waved homemade signs with messages like “Draper strong”, “99! Stronger than COVID-19!” and “Grandma beat Covid.”
Everyone kept their distance and some people stayed in their cars and honked their horns to show their support.
“It was like a circus,” Draper told CNN. “It’s pretty exciting. Pretty much the most exciting thing that’s happened to me in my life.”
She’d been at Springfield’s Memorial Medical Center for two weeks and spent a little bit of time in intensive care because she had an irregular heartbeat. She never had to go on a ventilator.
“I’ve never been that sick before,” she said. “Didn’t really hurt any place, I just couldn’t get my breath.”
Her son Sam Draper, said it was a scary time for the family, but the hospital had an iPad for his mom, so they could talk over FaceTime.
“It meant a lot to be able to see her,” he said.
Betty Draper said she’s still on oxygen, and has a little bit of congestion, but that’s going away.
“I’m feeling much better. I’m feeling much better every day. Moving around better,” she said. “I’m well taken of.”
Two daughters-in-law are taking turns staying with her, so she has someone caring for her day and night.4 Signs Your Heart Is Quietly Failing YouHow To Avoid A Heart Attack (Do This For 7 Seconds Twice A Day)Ad By PhysioTru See More
One of the first things she wanted when she got home was a Steak ‘n Shake hamburger and a milkshake.
Draper said she has no idea how she got coronavirus and that the only places she’d been were her church and Walmart. None of her family members have gotten sick.
She’s not officially under quarantine, but her son said the family is limiting visitors to give her a chance to get settled in at home.
“We’re such a large family and I don’t want her to be inundated with visitors,” Sam Draper said.
The family didn’t find out she was going to get to come home until the day before she was released, her granddaughter Kim Draper said.
“That’s when I busted butt and made a bunch of signs,” she said. “I put out a blast on Facebook saying we wanted as many people as we can to line the street.”
There have been 16,424 coronavirus cases reported in Illinois and 529 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Springfield Memorial has treated a dozen Covid-19 patients, a hospital spokesman told CNN.
Older adults seem to be at higher risk of suffering serious complications from the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kim Draper says she hopes her grandmother’s story is comforting for people, who are worried about their loved ones getting coronavirus.
“You’ve got to have hope. I mean, no two patients are the same, but you just have to pray and be there, and it’s not a death sentence,” she said.
She said her grandmother turns 100 in September and the family is planning a big bash. Betty Draper has already booked a room at her church for the party.
Photo Credit: kmov.com
Teen with special needs released from St. Louis Children’s hospital after beating coronavirus
ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com)— Tony Trimble was met with a round of applause as he walked out of his room at St. Louis Children’s Hospital Friday to head home after recovering from the coronavirus.
The 18-year-old was the first pediatric COVID-19 patient at the hospital. He was hospitalized on March 25 after testing positive. Tony, who was diagnosed with Prader-Willi syndrome, has gotten support from loved ones and community members during his journey.
His progress was tracked on the Prayers for Tony Trimble Facebook group.
“March 25th is an evening they will never forget. When I received the call from another friend, then shortly after heard from Carol, my heart sank. My eyes starting leaking,” Kay Holdenried-Bay wrote on Facebook.
On Thursday, Tony tested negative for the virus twice and doctors began discussing to discharge him.
Not only has he got support from the community, Tony has received special messages from St. Louis Blues Player Vladimar Tarasenko, Boston Celtics Jayson Tatum and the Lindbergh High School football team.
“He’s a walking miracle! Carol, Marc, Charlie, the Hof and Trimble families (and friends) are so thankful to each and every one of you for all the prayers, well wishes, videos, words of encouragement, etc… he has watched every video numerous times!,” Holdenried-Bay wrote.
Photo Credit: kmov.com
FedEx driver sanitizes package for 11-year-old girl with autoimmune disorder
(Meredith) — A FedEx delivery driver in Florida took some extra precautions to help protect a child with an autoimmune disorder.
Carrie Blasi, of Boca Raton, said her 11-year-old daughter Emma has type 1 diabetes.
Her family posted a sign on their front door to notify delivery drivers that someone in the house has an autoimmune disorder.
When a FedEx driver saw the sign, he went back to his truck and sanitized the package with disinfectant wipes.
Before leaving, he wrote a note on the box that read: “I sanitized you(r) box once I’ve seen the note on your door.”
The package contained medical supplies for Emma.
She got the chance to thank the driver, Justin Bradshaw, during a video conference with WPTV-TV on Wednesday.
“I really appreciate what you did for us,” Emma said.
“We thank you so much, for doing something you weren’t even asked to do,” her mom added.
Bradshaw said he went the extra mile because the sign on the family’s door hit close to home. His daughter, Nova, was born prematurely at 28 weeks. She weighed only 1 pound and 11 ounces, but she beat the odds.
“When I saw the sign, the first thing I thought of was Nova because she was a micro-premie, and she’s very high risk,” he said.
Blasi said the king gesture reminded her that there are still people who care about helping others.
“That single act made me forget about everything we have been going through since the first of March,” Blasi said.
Photo Credit: fox13news
Anonymous donor gives every household in an Iowa town $150 in gift cards for food
(CNN) — Like most of the world, the residents of a small town in Iowa are stuck at home, feeling isolated, alone, and trying their best to stay positive during the coronavirus pandemic.
So when an anonymous donor gave everyone in the town of Earlham $150 worth of gift cards for food, the community received something more valuable than money: hope.
It started on March 26, when Earlham Mayor Jeff Lillie received a call from a friend who told him there was a donor interested in interjecting money into the town’s economy. Earlham, population 1,450, is 30 miles west of Des Moines,
At first, the donor, who did not reveal their identity to the mayor, said they would buy 100 gift cards from three local businesses. An hour later, his friend called Lillie again and said the donor was bumping the number up to 250. An hour after that, the number was raised to 500.
“I said to him, at 500, you’re darn near giving a gift card to every single household in Earlham,” Lillie said. “When I told him there were 549 households in town, he said ‘Done.’ And that was it. I was ecstatic because it made sure everyone would get a card.”
But what Lillie didn’t know was that the donor wasn’t going to buy 549 cards in all — they were buying 549 gift cards from each of the three businesses. In total, they donated $82,350, meaning each business received more than $27,000.
Exactly one week later, every person in town woke up to a surprise in their mailbox: An envelope containing a letter from the city and three $50 gift cards to West Side Bar and Grille, Hometown Market, a grocery store, and Trostel’s Broken Branch, a restaurant and coffee shop.
The donation “completely overwhelmed” Lillie, who knew people around town who had been laid off and struggling due to the pandemic. The cards, he said, gave them a reason to smile and “a way to tell them help is on the way.”
“It came at the end of a couple really hard weeks,” Lillie told CNN, holding back tears.
“I remember going home and walking through the front door, and I couldn’t speak for a minute. I was just crying like a baby, and my little boy saw me and wrapped around my leg and said, ‘Daddy what’s wrong?’ And eventually I was able to choke it out: ‘Buddy, right now, for once, nothing’s wrong.'”Click to find out more about a new promotionDon’t miss this content from our sponsor
Giving local businesses a chance of survival
One of the restaurants involved in the gift cards, Trostel’s Broken Branch, was extremely new. So new that the eatery was set to officially open its doors just days before Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered all nonessential businesses in the state to shut down on March 17.
“We were in the middle of interviews for our employees, hiring some waitstaff and trying to get everything ready,” restaurant owner Jennifer Trostel told CNN. “Just about then, everything closed down. It hit right when we were going to open our restaurant.”
While other restaurants were equipped to transition to takeout only, Trostel, who owns the restaurant with her husband Troy, said they were completely “unprepared” to make that move. Without any staff or a running computer system to take in orders or payments, the Trostels were stuck at a dead end.
That was until the anonymous donor saved their business. When she got the phone call telling her about the donation, Trostel said she was so shocked her body was covered in goosebumps.
“It gave us hope,” she said. “To be able to pay our bills and know that it’s OK, we don’t have to close our doors forever. We’ll be here when this is over. I don’t think we could be able to say that without the donation.”
Any Earlham resident who doesn’t need the gift cards or won’t use them can drop them off at a bill pay slot at City Hall. The cards will be distributed to families in the Earlham Community School District who need assistance.
When asked what he would tell the anonymous donor if he could ever meet them, Lillie said he “couldn’t even find the words.”
“I would tell them thank you 549 times,” Lillie said. “It would be like meeting a hero.”
Landlords asking for sex instead of rent during COVID-19 crisis
A government agency in the US state of Hawaii has reported an increase in the number of women reporting landlords asking for sexual favours in exchange for rent.The Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women noted more cases being reported, suggesting that landlords are “preying” on tenants’ financial stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.Due to recent layoffs and furloughs, only 69 per cent of US renters were able to make rent on April 1.
Immigration attorney Kevin Block says instead of asking for rent, some landlords are asking for “other arrangements” and even sending graphic sexual images when female tenants ask about rent.”I am concerned because reported incidents indicate a greater number of unreported incidents,” Mr Block said.Khara Jabola-Carolus, Executive Director of the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women says sexual harassment by landlords makes it hard for women to shelter-in-place.”There was no plan upfront to prepare for the physical and sexual violence from the combination of shelter-in-place, lost income and systemic sexism,” Ms Jabola-Carolus said.
“We need to get the information on rights and resources out as fast and wide as we can. There is help.”An online guide was created by the Hawaii State Commission for women if they are victimised by a landlord. The Commission will offer guidance on the emergency rent assistance and will also be keeping a database of bad landlords.
Anyone victimised by a landlord should file a complaint. Normally, tenants would have 180 days to report the incident to the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission (HCRC), which takes jurisdiction unless it’s a federally funded entity.Since HCRC is closed due to the pandemic, victims are advised to contact the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii.Ms Jabola-Carolus added: “Retaliation by a landlord for filing a complaint against him is illegal. If your landlord changes the locks or shuts off your utilities for complaining about his sexual predation, you can file a landlord-tenant TRO against your landlord and the court will take these cases during the crisis. Please contact Legal Aid Society of Hawaii for help with retaliation. There are no income limits for their help when it comes to fair housing matters.”
Photo Credit: 9news.com
FL Woman put plastic Easter eggs filled with porn in mailboxes
(WESH/CNN/Meredith) — A woman in Florida was arrested for allegedly putting explicit content in mailboxes.
Deputies say she filled plastic Easter eggs with pornographic images.
Flager County Sheriff Rick Staly said his detectives almost caught 42-year-old Abril Cestoni in the act moments after she allegedly placed unwanted pornographic materials hidden in plastic Easter eggs in mailboxes throughout Palm Coast Wednesday night. Evidence was also recovered from her vehicle.
At various times, Cestoni claimed to be part of a church, but she was also ranting against churches, claiming the explicitly sexual pictures in plastic Easter eggs were her way of calling out church leaders she believes are engaged in illicit behavior.
“She claims that the bible is being rewritten, that there is homosexuality in the church. And she felt that they were not teaching the word of god,” Staly said.
As more and more citizens called police to say they discovered the Easter eggs inside their mailboxes, the sheriff worried about the touching of the objects during the coronavirus pandemic.
“[She was] putting things out that they know people are going to open and touch, and so that concerned us a lot,” he said.
The sheriff said Cestoni does not appear to be symptomatic for the virus, but “clearly has other issues.”
They say she admitted driving around for hours at a time, going into mailboxes, leaving behind the disturbing materials and other oddities.
Photo Credit: dailymail.co.uk
86-year-old who broke social distancing space in ER and grabbed IV pole died after being shoved
(CNN) — An 86-year-old woman who broke coronavirus social distancing guidelines and grabbed onto another patient’s IV pole in the emergency room was shoved, fell to the floor, hit her head and later died, according to a report from the New York City Police Department.
Janie Marshall, broke the recommended six-foot space between herself and patient Cassandra Lundy, 32, when she grabbed Lundy’s IV pole to get her balance at the Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center in Brooklyn on March 28.
A family member told CNN that Marshall had dementia.
Lundy was initially given a summons by the hospital police for disorderly conduct, according to the Times, but after the medical examiner ruled Marshall’s death a homicide, Lundy was arrested and charged with manslaughter and assault on April 2, the NYPD said.
Lundy faces charges of manslaughter in the first and second degree, assault in the second degree, and criminally negligent homicide, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
CNN has been unable to identify an attorney for Lundy.
In a statement to CNN, Woodhull Hospital said they are working with the NYPD on the investigation.
“We are terribly saddened by this death. We are committed to ensuring a safe, health-focused environment in these very demanding times so our heroic health care workers can continue to deliver the quality, compassionate care New Yorkers need more than ever,” the hospital said in a statement.
Antoinette Leonard-Jean Charles, Marshall’s grandniece, told CNN that Marshall had been admitted to the ER on March 27 after experiencing stomach pains related to a bowel obstruction. She said the hospital has not been communicative in providing details on how Marshall died. Instead, she has been relying on local news reports to get more information on the altercation.
The hospital had cited the health privacy law HIPAA as to why they could not give more information, even though her mother and Marshall’s niece, Eleanor Leonard, was listed as her next of kin, Charles said.
The hospital told CNN it was unable to release further information.
Though Charles only knows as much as what’s in the police report, she speculated that because Marshall had dementia, she may not have understood her surroundings, so she wandered around, eventually running into Lundy amid the chaos of the ER that night.
Marshall, born in 1934 and the youngest of 12 children, was “one of the sweetest, friendliest women you could ever meet,” said Charles. According to her obituary, Marshall worked for the Social Security Administration and was one of the first African American women to receive a Commissioner Citation, the agency’s highest award.
Marshall “never wanted to be anybody’s victim,” she added, which was perhaps the hardest part of learning of her death — that the family wasn’t there and Marshall was ultimately a victim of circumstances in being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
As the hospitals in New York City and across the country grapple with surging coronavirus-related hospitalizations, Charles stressed that violence in uncertain times will never change anything.
One fearful action could lead to serious, unintended consequences, she said.
“Violence is not going to change anything.”
Babyface Says He’s Almost “Back to Full Health” After Coronavirus Diagnosis
Singer and songwriter Kenneth Brian Edmonds, known by his stage name Babyface, shared on social media Friday that he previously tested positive for the novel coronavirus and is now negative.
Alongside the caption “Stay home, stay safe,” Babyface acknowledged his 62nd birthday by thanking people for the well wishes.
“I feel so blessed to be able to celebrate another birthday,” he wrote. “I tested positive for the Covid-19 virus, as did my family. It’s an incredibly scary thing to go through my friends.”
He then added, “I am happy to report we have now tested negative and are on our way back to full health.”
The singer noted that he is happy to accept the invitation from Swizz Beatz and Timbaland to participate in what he calls a “Celebration of Black Music Excellence.” The hip-hop and R&B event will take place on Instagram Live on April 18 at 6pm PT.
View his full post below.
Photo Credit: Ron Sachs – Pool/Getty Images
Minnesota landlord charged over eviction attempt during pandemic
Authorities in Minnesota have pressed charges against a landlord who evicted a tenant during the coronavirus crisis and thus violated a state order forbidding kicking people out of their homes as the pandemic spreads across the US.
The move is one of the strongest actions yet taken to guard vulnerable people against the threat of eviction as unemployment in the US soars to levels not seen since the Great Recession in the wake of the economic crisis caused by the virus as widespread shutdowns cover the US.
Numerous cities and states have deployed eviction moratoriums. Among them is Minnesota, one of 15 states and territories to suspend both the enforcement of evictions and the filing of them in court, according to a tracker on new eviction policies being maintained by a professor at Columbia University.
Minnesota’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, worked with Governor Tim Walz to craft the state’s executive order suspending evictions. Landlords have so far been supportive, including the state’s biggest landlord advocacy group, the Minnesota Multi Housing Association.
But last week, in a case that was one of the first of its kind across the country, Ellison’s office pressed charges against a small landlord, Howard Mostad of rural Pine county, for violating the executive order against evictions.
According to the complaint filed in court, Mostad had advised his tenants, a family of three with a four-year-old daughter, that their lease was ending on 1 April, but as the date approached, they had trouble finding a new place because of the coronavirus pandemic and the state’s “stay-at-home” order.
Mostad then allegedly showed up at their door on 2 April, and asked to be let in so he could show the property to a potential buyer. The family refused, saying they feared letting new people into their home, as their daughter has a pre-existing medical condition making her more vulnerable to the virus. Mostad responded by forcing his way in and then removing circuit breakers in the boiler room, leaving the family without electricity, heat or hot water, the complaint says.
Ellison said that while he understood many landlords were in a difficult situation, he thought Mostad’s actions were “particularly heartless” and he hoped the state would be sending a message by pressing charges. He said that forcing people into homeless shelters would increase the risk for public health.
“We want to encourage small business people, including landlords, to seek help when they need it. But understand that by putting people out into the street, what they’re doing is not only hurting a family, but they’re actually exposing all of us to potential transmission,” Ellison told the Guardian.
When reached by the Guardian, Mostad, 77, said that the family was not behind on rent, but that he had been planning to sell his farm, including the home where they lived, as business had been tough for several years.
In an interview, he lashed out against undocumented immigrants, refugees and Black Lives Matter activists, and what he sees as government overreach in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
“What’s happening with the coronavirus shutdown is a communist takeover,” he said.
Mostad now faces up to $25,000 in fines. Ellison said while his office would continue to enforce the eviction moratorium, he worries about what will happen when the order is lifted, and called for action at the federal level.
“We’re going to need a way to figure out how to deal with the rent that eventually will come due for people who have been out of work through no fault of their own. We need a societal response to that, we need a national response to that,” he said.
Ellison’s fear is shared by Alieza Durana, a writer with the Eviction Lab, a team of researchers and students at Princeton University dedicated to mapping and understanding eviction causes and trends across the country.
She described a patchwork of different approaches across the country.
She noted that California had attempted to address the problem Ellison described by creating a six-month window in which tenants will be able to pay back rent. However, like several other states, California’s eviction moratorium also allows for “local discretion”, meaning cities in different parts of the state could interpret it differently. That, she said, could potentially leave residents in suburban and rural areas without strong tenant-rights organizations more vulnerable.
Evictions continue meanwhile, in states such as Alabama and Oklahoma, where 1,156 evictions have been filed since 15 March, according to Open Justice Oklahoma.
“The legal advocates that I’ve been speaking to have become very concerned that if we do not close these loopholes, the court system is going to receive an onslaught of eviction notices once the state of emergency is lifted,” she said.
Durana cited a survey published by the Federal Reserve last year indicating four in 10 Americans would have difficulty covering an unexpected $400 expense.
“So given that that was true prior to the pandemic, there’s a very real possibility that moving forward, without government intervention, we could see the return of greater numbers of homelessness across the United States, and other types of hardship,” she said.
via: https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/xandr/landlord-charged-over-eviction-attempt-103044313.html
Photo Credit: Joshua Roberts/Reuters
Florida Man Accused of Murdering His Wife, Using COVID-19 as Cover
A Florida man is accused of killing his wife and using coronavirus as a cover story for her disappearance.
David Anthony, 48, was arrested on March 31st in Las Cruces, Mexico, in connection with the disappearance of his wife Gretchen, 51. He is charged with second-degree murder and kidnapping.
According to a witness, who is not being identified publicly, someone purporting to be Gretchen sent her a “suspicious” text message on March 23rd claiming she had been diagnosed with COVID-19, and was being detained by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Police also said another witness contacted them with a similar story, saying they had received a text from Gretchen claiming she had an “acute” case of COVID-19 and was being “sedated” by a CDC task force.
When contacted by police, officials at the Jupiter Medical Center said there was no one with Gretchen’s name at the hospital. Reports of someone claiming to be Gretchen sending an additional text message to her mother saying she was on a ventilator at a local hospital also failed to check out.
When police arrived at Gretchen’s home, they were unable to locate her. A neighbor informed them that she had heard screams at the residence the previous Saturday, including the sound of a woman yelling “No, no! It hurts.” Upon searching her residence, police found towels in her kitchen containing a “reddish substance” that appeared to be blood, as well as evidence of what appeared to be blood droplets in her bedroom.
According to the Anthonys’ friends, the couple had separated earlier this year, with Gretchen filing for divorce in February. Anthony is currently awaiting extradition to Palm Beach County, Florida.
Photo Credit: The Jupiter Police Department