South Carolina COVID-19 Long-Hauler Family Worries About Long-Term Health, Finances

Summer Barrios of Seneca, South Carolina, is thankful her husband is alive.

The Barrios family held their breath as Robert Barrios tested positive for COVID-19 this summer. He’s been navigating long-term health complications ever since.

Back in July, the 46-year-old father was overseeing shipping and receiving as a warehouse manager. He called his wife when he started feeling ill on the job, she says. He can’t recall anything from that day, Summer Barrios says, because of how sick he felt.

He was put on a ventilator four times, experienced intensive care unit delirium and aspirated multiple times from a collapsed lung, which caused bacterial pneumonia. Doctors say he may have lung disease brought on by damage from COVID-19 and pneumonia, she says.