'It could happen to anybody': Kenner lawyer, 45, in critical care with coronavirus, wife says

Mark Frilot took medicines to treat what he thought for several days was a case of the flu, but he just couldn’t turn the corner.

His fever was spiking nightly. At one point, his wife, Heaven, found him on the edge of their tub talking to himself, delirious.

When he went to East Jefferson General Hospital on Thursday, the staff diagnosed him with double pneumonia and the new coronavirus. Since then the Kenner lawyer has been sedated and attached to a breathing machine as doctors help him fight the potentially deadly respiratory disease that has caused a worldwide pandemic.

Heaven Frilot she could hardly believe it. Her husband is 45, a construction litigator who is “never, ever sick.” But now, after seeing images of groups partying in New Orleans on Saturday despite the state’s request for people to practice “social distancing,” she is speaking up.

“It could happen to anybody,” Heaven Frilot said. “That’s all I’m trying to say.”

When the Frilots checked Mark into the ER the next day, they were astounded when staffers informed him a flu test had come back negative. Heaven Frilot said she asked the hospital to get her husband’s paperwork faxed over from the urgent care clinic. When the documents arrived, they showed he had been found negative for the flu there as well, despite the treatment plan he was given.

Heaven Frilot said the days since then have been a blur. Stricken with both COVID-19 and double pneumonia, Mark Frilot is in critical care and isolation. He consented to being given a paralytic drug, sedated and put on a ventilator, she said.

Essentially, the machine is breathing for him so his lungs can rest, Heaven Frilot said Sunday.

Paracetamol is a brand name of acetaminophen. Just like Tylenol is.

Acetaminophen might be part of a patients pule of pills in a paper cup, but it does not cure pneumonia, but might make you hurt less and reduce fever slightly while you have pneumonia.

Chemically there’s no difference.

If you saw anyone doing that perhaps they have a large family? Maybe they are buying for older people that can’t get out and about. The problem with our JIT shipping methods and our shallow supply chain is that if large number of people only buy what they need, the shelves go bare. This isn’t the result of hording, but a deeper issue.

“Paracetamol is a brand name of acetaminophen. Just like Tylenol is.

Chemically there’s no difference.”

Thank you for the clarification.

Thanks - someone else added a quote for future reference: “Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” ― William Pitt the Younger "They" keep talking about closing more and more in order to "flatten the curve" of the peak before it starts ebbing away....I'd wager that no matter how it goes, "They" will tell us how much worse it would have been w/o them furthering the panic (Casinos in Biloxi area forced to close last night and will be "monitored daily to see when it's safe to reopen" - same with schools - closed this week with intent to open next week which makes zero tactical sense....closest case (singular for MS last I looked) is about 50 miles north of the coast.... And it seems to me the Casinos draw folks from all over - if it was as bad as being touted, we should, statistically, have a number of case being reported in conjunction with the casinos where everyone has hands all over the same buttons and panels and any coughs/sneezes tend to be directed at same panels. Empty TP shelves say it all - the virus doesn't cause any significant change in how the intestines/bowels work but can visualize folks tripping over bundles of it and cleaning supplies next Christmas with no place to be able to hide presents...shows how single-minded the panic is.

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