KILAUEA — Thomas and Tali McCall had a choice.
Following their joint diagnosis of the novel coronavirus last month, they prepared their home for hospice care.
“We made a decision we would stay home and take care of each other, because if we went to the hospital, we would have to say goodbye,” Thomas, 73, said soberingly. “We wouldn’t have been allowed to see each other.”
Tali, 70, has been fighting Stage 4 lung cancer for the past eight months. Every month, she has her lungs drained. In March, after coming back from a trip to California, she and Thomas went to the emergency room to have this procedure done.
This time, doctors asked to do a PET scan, too, but advised against traveling to O‘ahu for it. So, doctors did a CT scan. What they saw concerned them. With Tali’s recent medical history, they believed the cancer had spread up into the lungs.
The couple went home, and then, the Health Department called.
“They said, ‘It’s not cancer we’re seeing up in the lungs, it’s the coronavirus,’” Thomas recalled.
Thomas, who has asthma, went into Wilcox Medical Center the next day for a test. Round back of the hospital, two people came out in what Thomas described as spacesuits.
“It was quick, a little uncomfortable, but not a big deal,” he said. When his test came back five days later, he was also positive.
Hospice came into their home, setting up medicines and an oxygen tank for their use.
“As soon as we find out we both had it, then hospice came and you know, it was preparing for the worst,” he said.
He took to Facebook, notifying friends and family around the world. He’d update throughout the weeks his and Tali’s conditions.
Thomas had a cough which led to a hard time breathing and used the oxygen tank a couple times.
“I’ve had times when it got triggered,” Thomas said. “The bronchus would swell up and I couldn’t breathe. I’d have to get on steroids until my lungs opened back up.”
But he never had a fever or chills.
Tali, on the other hand, experienced severe coughing bouts and a fever that spiked to 102 degrees, but it broke later that night. Each day, the Health Department called twice to check temperatures and symptoms, and every other day, a nurse came to check them out.
The pair felt lousy, Thomas said, but they took it one day at a time.
After their diagnosis, word got around the neighborhood fast. As the days went on, neighbors would quickly walk past their home or wait until the McCalls went inside from their porch to walk past. (The McCall’s downstairs neighbor, who tested negative for the virus, was also put under quarantine.)
“I remember back in the ’80s during the HIV/AIDS epidemic came out,” he said. “Because people don’t know, so there’s so much paranoid and fear behind it.”
On Kaua‘i there are currently five active cases on the island. The county has record 21 cases, with 16 either recovered or transferred elsewhere. Hawai‘i has over 500 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and nine deaths.
One day early on after their diagnosis, they were walking their golden retriever early in the morning. Not thinking much of it, they left their property. Somebody must have seen, because the police came by shortly after to tell them they weren’t allowed to leave the small yard.
These interactions made Thomas and Tali think about others who are isolated because of the virus. Thomas said they’re both strong and thick-skinned, but it hurt to be shunned during an already frightening time.
“We have a disease, we are not the disease,” he said.
Thomas is currently waiting on a letter from the Health Department stating he’s in the clear and no longer contagious after testing negative, and Tali isn’t showing any symptoms and is awaiting one more test at the end of this week. On Monday, the couple shared their 23 wedding anniversary together.
“We know many, many people and they spent quite an outpouring of love and support,” Thomas said, mentioning that friends and neighbors would ask how they were and drop off food and other supplies to them. “I think that probably helped in some ways but I think the main thing is we had a mild case of the coronavirus, thank God.”
Thomas quotes John Prine, who died of COVID-19 last week.
“In one of his songs, he talks about an elderly couple, ‘Hello In There,” Thomas said. “There are people that are lonely, they’re scared and they’re alone. And if you can just stop and say hello, it can make all the difference.”
•••
Sabrina Bodon, can be
reached at 245-0441 or
sbodon@thegardenisland.com.
