Ottawa man with COVID-19 back home after travel ordeal from Spain

An Ottawa couple is finally back in their hometown after a medical ordeal in Spain that left one of them paralyzed from the chest down and with COVID-19, and the other a presumptive case.

Carol and Brian Seaby were vacationing in Spain at the end of February when Brian began to develop numbness in his feet. 

Carol said he required urgent surgery to remove four tumours from his spinal column and was admitted to a private hospital in Málaga in early March. He was left partially paralyzed.

As he recovered, Carol said the coronavirus began to spread through the community and staff at the hospital were overwhelmed. Sections of the hospital were closing down and patients were being shuffled.

"In the matter of three days, they had changed our rooms three times," Carol said.

Carol, who is a nurse herself, began to help Brian with physiotherapy. She said the local nurses had to cut back their care as the pressure from coronavirus swelled.

"I had to move into the couch in his room to be able to provide care for him 24 hours a day."'

Testing positive for COVID-19

Brian was tested for COVID-19 before he left and got the positive result from Spain after he arrived in Canada.

Carol hasn't been tested, but she said she has COVID-19 symptoms, has spoken to Ottawa Public Health and is considered a presumed case.

"I've been far too sick to go out. I haven't gone outside of the house. I couldn't go out to the Brewer [Arena test site] and I certainly couldn't sit in the car," Carol said, she's self-isolating at home.

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Their daughter Christine Seaby said her siblings worried more and more as the Spanish response to the spread of COVID-19 became more dramatic.

"We had to fast-track and get them home as soon as possible because the borders were starting to close," Christine said.

"We knew if we waited any longer our parents would both be stuck in isolation in a hospital room in Spain."

Christine said she and her siblings had to deal with days of phone calls between the insurance company, medical transportation companies and both Spanish and Canadian hospitals before the family chartered a plane on their own.

She finally saw her dad, from a safe distance, on Friday at 3 a.m.

"I hadn't seen him in almost a month and to see him in that condition was hard, but very relieving that he had made it home to Ottawa," Christine said.

Son waiting for test results

Carol's children are checking in on her and maintaining a safe distance. Her son Jamie, who visited the hospital in Spain shortly after Brian's surgery, is also waiting for his COVID-19 test results and is in self-isolation.

Carol said the most difficult thing is being apart from her husband.

"I've been very frightened for my husband, because I knew I wasn't well enough to look after him anymore," Carol said. 

"The kids got us home. I have every confidence in the staff at the Ottawa Hospital."

Carol said she hopes people understand the importance of self-isolation and that her family's story can help drive that point home.