- A 44-year-old legal recruiter and blogger is now in critical condition after he was hospitalized for COVID-19, his husband said.
- David Lat, who has twice completed the New York City Marathon, suffers from exercise-induced asthma but was otherwise in good health, he tweeted after his hospitalization.
- Lat had been sharing updates about his coronavirus-related hospitalization in New York City on Twitter until March 18.
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David Lat, a 44-year-old legal recruiter and blogger, is now in critical condition in a New York City hospital as he battles a severe case of COVID-10, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
“He’s not doing great,” Zachary Baron Shemtob, Lat’s husband, told Law.com. He said doctors at Manhattan’s NYU Langone hospital were “really attending to him” while “taking it hour by hour, day by day.”
As of late Friday night or early Saturday morning, Shemtob said his husband’s “oxygen levels dropped,” which required he be placed on a ventilator. It wasn’t clear if doctors had a prognosis for his husband, Shemtob said.
Shemtob told Law.com that doctors were treating Lat with a Z-Pak (azithromycin) and an anti-malaria drug. An IL 6-inhibitor was being used in an attempt to reduce inflammation in his lungs, his husband told Law.com.
Chloroquine, a drug used to treat malaria, has been considered a potential treatment for the novel coronavirus, though health officials caution it has not been tested for such purposes despite it being mentioned by the president as a potential treatment. CNN reported Monday that health officials in Nigeria have reported overdoses from the drug in the country.
"It is too early to rush to the decision that chloroquine ... at least for WHO to recommend it for the treatment of coronavirus," Dr. Michel Yao, Africa emergency response program manager for the World Health Organization, told CNN.
Insider previously reported that Lat, the founder of the Above the Law blog, had been sharing news about his journey with the novel coronavirus with his followers on Twitter. Lat said he has run the New York City Marathon two times and regularly exercised, though he is still reliant on oxygen as a result of the virus.
"This morning, this ex-marathoner could barely walk the five feet from the bed to the toilet - and I had to pee as quickly as possible, chest heaving with the labor of breathing, because I was going to collapse if I stood too long," Lat tweeted on March 17.
Lat has not tweeted since March 18. He had previously posted details of the lengthy process he went through to even get tested for the virus after first developing symptoms of the viruses.
"It shouldn't have taken two separate ER visits, both times with severe respiratory symptoms, to get a #COVID19 test. But that was my experience - and even though the situation is improving, it's still sadly the case for so many others," Lat tweeted last week.
Lat wrote on Twitter that he was admitted at NYU Langone on March 16 after finally being tested for COVID-19.
By Monday 3/16, I couldn’t breathe again. I rushed back to the ER - and this time they were on their game. They admitted me, gave me oxygen, put me in an isolation room - and FINALLY gave me the #coronavirus test. #LatsCovid19Journal
— David Lat (@DavidLat) March 18, 2020
Lat tweeted that he had exercise-induced asthma, though he recently did intense interval training three times each week and walked around 25 miles weekly while controlling his asthma with an inhaler. Shemtob told Law.com that the condition possibly made his case of COVID-19 more severe.
"I just want folks to know that he is so strong; he is hanging in there, and we are praying he'll recover," Shemtob told Law.com. "Any thoughts or prayers people have are much appreciated."
Data from initial cases suggests that the COVID-19 has a greater impact on older individuals, though there have been reported instances of critical cases and even deaths among younger people. About 80% of COVID-19 deaths in the US have been among people aged 65 and older, according to a Centers for Disease Control report released last week.
Shemtob told Law.com that one of the most difficult parts of Lat's illnesses has been that family members have not been permitted to visit Lat in the hospital over fears of virus transmission. The couple has a two-year-old son, according to the outlet.
In his previous tweets, Lat said his husband, who is 36, had also come down with the virus, though he had a mild case with more flu-like symptoms.
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