Florida woman hospitalized with COVID-19 comes home to find husband dead from virus

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. -- A Florida woman, who battled and beat COVID-19 in the hospital for eight days, returned home to discover her husband had died in their home due to the virus.

"It was just like walking into a horror scene. It's just been horrible," Winter Haven resident Lisa Steadman told WFTS, ABC Action News.

The 58-year-old thought she was through the worst of it.

She and her husband Ron both got diagnosed with COVID-19 in early August.

"I was in the hospital for eight days. Every day I talked to him," she said.

Ron never ended up in the hospital. Instead, he was home taking care of the dogs, while his wife was gone.

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"Sunday, when I talked to him, he told me his phone was acting up, that it wouldn't hold a charge. I said 'okay,' well then Monday came, I couldn't get ahold of him. So I called the police, Winter Haven Police Department, said could they do a wellness check. They came out, did a wellness check, talked to him, he was out with the dogs, they said, 'he has a cold,' but he was okay as far as not fixing to pass away or something."

But sometime between then and when Steadman left the hospital Wednesday evening, things took a turn for the worst.

"I could hear our little dogs. They were all in the bedroom together, the dogs and him. I rolled to the bedroom door, I opened the door, and he was on the bed passed away," she said.

Ron died from COVID-related complications.

"He always wore his mask, he always used his hand sanitizer," she said.

She said that neither of them had received a COVID-19 vaccine - not because they were against it, only because they wanted to wait.

Now, after talking with her doctor and dealing with the virus first hand, her mind has changed.

"I said that when I got better, 'cause I can't take it 'til the end of September, that I would get the shot," she said.

Now she shares a message to everyone else.

"Remember you are not promised tomorrow. So you better make sure you tell your loved ones you love them," she said.

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