Family fights triple infection

For 65-year-old Ricky Lee, the past few weeks have been a nightmare. Together with his 62-year-old wife and 37-year-old son, he found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Staying in Wuhan, Hubei province, during Chinese New Year, the three Hong Kong natives were successively infected by the coronavirus.

Now, recovering in the isolation ward of a hospital in Wuhan, Lee recounted his ordeal in a phone interview with China Daily.

"I never expected to have to live in an isolation ward like this. But somehow I have become numb to my plight," he said.

"I just lie on the bed and stare at the ceiling."

Lee and his wife were visiting their son, whose wife is a Wuhan native.

The younger couple runs a jewelry business they established in the city seven years ago.

Lee was alarmed when he heard rumors about an "unidentified pneumonia" in early December.

Having experienced severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003, he made his family wear face masks and stopped his 5-year-old granddaughter from going to school, though his 12-year-old grandson continued to attend classes.

Lee's son and his family live about 8 kilometers from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, the suspected source of the outbreak.

Lee's wife was the first to show symptoms. On Jan 25, Chinese New Year's Day, she developed a cough and a high fever.

Their first reaction was to send the children to stay with relatives. Then, Lee called a hotline for the disease and was told to visit a community clinic for an initial diagnosis. The doctor there said Mrs. Lee had a common cold, and told them not to worry.

Unconvinced, they drove to a hospital on the night of Jan 26. After waiting six hours, Mrs. Lee underwent a CT scan of her lungs.

"Looking at the result, the doctor immediately told us, with 99 percent probability, that my wife had the virus," the husband recalled.

"We were so scared, and didn't expect to be so unlucky."

However, Mrs. Lee was turned away because of a shortage of beds.

Over the following days, the family called friends for help, and they were extremely relieved when a bed became available on Jan 29.

Lee didn't know how his wife became infected, but he noted that she had visited a wet market about three times in the same week to prepare for the Spring Festival holiday.

He then came down with similar symptoms to his wife, spending 11 days in bed with a high fever before being admitted to the hospital.

In despair, his son called Vincent Fung, director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Wuhan, for help.

Fung arranged for Lee to be admitted to the Hong Kong-funded Wuhan Asia General Hospital on Feb 7.

Four days later, Lee's son was admitted to the same hospital, having also contracted the virus.

Both are now recovering, and the son was discharged on Feb 29.

Despite constant attention from medical staff members, Mrs. Lee remains in critical condition at a different hospital.

Lee, who has been married for 40 years, said he can't fall asleep at night as he is worried about his wife.

"She's a generous person, and has toiled tirelessly for the family her whole life," he said.

"There's nothing I can do, except pray for a miracle."