Florida Wife Returns from Hospital Covid Battle to Find Husband Dead in Bed

She thought he was staying at home to heal from his own COVID-19 infection.

• Dogs were locked in the bedroom with him, sources say almost starved to death
• 55-year-old husband of Lisa Steadman tested positive for COVID-19 at a walk-in clinic in Florida
• Lisa's own infection required hospitalization

A Florida woman who managed to recover from her own COVID-19 battle returned home to find her also-infected husband dead in bed. Lisa Steadman says her nightmare began roughly 10 days ago when her husband, Ron, tested positive for COVID-19 at a local walk-in clinic near their Florida home. Neither of them was vaccinated.

"They sent him home with medicine and stuff because he wasn't in distress or anything," she told WFLA. "It was just like he had a bad cold."

Lisa & Ron Steadman of Winter Haven, Florida during happier daysWFLA

Ron's symptoms weren't that bad initially, but Lisa's soon grew worse. After passing out one day, she was rushed to Winter Haven Hospital where she would spend the next eight days fighting her own COVID-19 battle and doing her best to recover enough to be released.

"I thought I was going to die. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't stop throwing up," she told local Florida affiliate Fox 13. "It is like you don't have no bones in your body. You can't move. You're just that weak."

She was talking to her husband on the phone every day though and tracking his own home-based recovery. On Sunday night though he told her his phone was "acting up" and wouldn't charge. By Monday she couldn't get in touch with him and asked Winter Haven, Florida police to stop by for a welfare check. The police did stop by, and 55-year-old Ron was reportedly okay at that point.

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Lisa shared, "He was fine but had like a bad cold according to them. He had been having problems with his phone not staying charged so on Tuesday I never got a hold of him and I thought, okay his phone finally took a dive."

Lisa was eventually released by the hospital at 6:30 PM Wednesday evening, driven home and "walked into a nightmare." Her husband Ron was dead in their bed, the dogs locked in the bedroom with him almost starved and dying of thirst.

"He had been there we are figuring since Monday," she wrote on Facebook, which was the same day police had visited him. "The dogs were almost gone from lack of food and water. It was like walking into a horror film, and I wish I had never seen him like that because I can't get that picture out of my head," she said, breaking into tears as she discussed her last vision of him.

"They say he died of COVID-related problems because they know he had COVID," Lisa continued. "They don't know if he had a heart attack from COVID or if he had an embolism. They don't know."

Lisa said both she and Ron "felt that [the vaccine ] hadn't been tested enough yet," adding that, "Now after being in the hospital and talking with my doctor, when I am able to take it, I will in September."

She urges others to do the same.

Have your own close brush with COVID-19 or a story you'd like to share? We'd love to hear about it in the comments section.