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First Coast police officer beats COVID-19 against steep odds

A St. Augustine Beach Police veteran tells of his rapid descent into illness, beating an estimated "ten percent" chance of survival.

ST. AUGUSTINE BEACH, Fla. — He’s been protecting lives for 14 years, but for about a month, recently, it was all anyone could do to save his life.

St. Augustine Beach Police lieutenant Daniel Carswell came down with Covid-19.

“It was the beginning of March and it was spring break week,” the lieutenant began narrating during a recent FaceTime conversation from his home. “At first it felt like I was getting the flu, you know, the body aches and the low fever.”

Carswell knew roughly when, but not how, he contracted the virus that has changed the world in recent months. None of his colleagues at the police department have tested positive, before or since that time, but his descent into severe illness was startling.

“After a couple of days I started to lose a lot of energy and I got really bad shortness of breath,” he said.

Because he also has asthma, doctors weren’t immediately certain of his diagnosis. But he was tested, and early on, his boss, police chief Robert Hardwick, ordered him to quarantine himself at home while awaiting test results.

Then, on the evening of March 26:

“I got up to use the restroom, middle of the evening, from my bed, and I was so weak and out of breath that I couldn’t even make it back to my bed,” he said.

Carswell was rushed to Flagler Hospital.

“When I first got to the hospital, they said that my lungs looked really bad, and I had pneumonia in both lungs,” he said.l

That would prompt doctors to place Carswell on a ventilator.

“It was the day before I went on the ventilator, I got a text from Chief Hardwick that my results had come back, that I was positive.”

Hardwick said it was difficult being kept separate from his 14-year officer.

“We can’t see, we can’t talk to, we can’t touch him,” he said. “So it’s been very emotional.”

Carswell wasn’t isolated just from his professional peers; like all COVID-19 patients at Flagler, he couldn’t accept any visitors.

“They don’t have their families with them,” hospital spokeswoman Michelle Andrade told First Coast News on Monday, “so [doctors and nurses] become their family, more now than on a normal basis.”

But Carswell’s loved ones were well aware of what was happening and they were terrified.

“We were preparing for the worst,” Hardwick recalled, “so again, it’s been an emotional roller coaster ride for my agency here.”

Doctors eventually warned his family Carswell had only about a ten-percent chance of survival.

Ironically, just about the only person not afraid for Carswell’s life – was Carswell himself. He was under heavy sedation during much of his two weeks in the intensive care unit.

“When I got put on the ventilator, I was sedated,” Carswell said. “I don’t remember getting put on it, so I never really remembered being scared to go, you know?”

The news being relayed to Carswell’s family and friends seemed to deteriorate by the day.

“And I guess they even came and got my will from my house and were planning a law enforcement funeral.”

Just weeks before, Carswell, not even 40 yet, had been in good health. Then:

“Everything in my body started shutting down: my liver, my kidneys,” he said.

As loved ones divided their time between prayer and tending to Carswell’s affairs, he began to make that ten-percent-survival-likelihood prognosis stand up. 

He would eventually be released from Flagler Hospital on April 9th. It would be an unusually rousing sendoff by the staff, who don’t give preferential treatment to any patient.  But some were already acquainted with Carswell because of his profession.

“I’ve been in contact with Flagler for the past 14 years,” he said, “In and out of there … myself getting hurt or bringing people we come into contact in, but they’ve always been great.”

The impromptu get-out-of-the-hospital party was a hero’s salute as dozens of staff members lined the hallways, while others wheeled him out to their standing ovation.

“When we knew that he was being discharged, we just kind of threw it together. ‘Let’s get everyone involved, that was a part of this; whoever wants to come’,” Andrade said. “And the turnout was fantastic.”

But Carswell’s comeback trail didn’t end then: he’s been gradually regaining strength of breath and body, using a treadmill, and recovering from a clot in one of his legs, apparently the result of so much bed rest.

“The past two, two-and-a-half weeks, I’ve been dramatically improving,” he said.

And a major milestone for him came May 4, when he returned to his job at the St. Augustine Beach Police station, so far working half days in a gradual ramp-up.

“[My co-workers] did some decorations in my office, you know, some pretty funny stuff – my own private parking space - you know, joking around,” Carswell grinned. “But everybody’s been so welcoming and just happy I’m back. And I’m more happy than they are, that I’m back. I love my job and I love everybody at work, we’re like a little small family down there. So to get back in there and see everybody who I haven’t seen in two months has been really great.”

That word, “family,” is one that Carswell’s boss echoed.

“We feel like we didn’t skip a beat, but again it was just good to have him home with our men and women,” Hardwick said, underscoring, “we are a family at St. Augustine Beach police department.”

Asked what his concerns might be as many businesses and the economy at large try to emerge from the coronavirus crisis, Carswell said “I would just hope that people who do go out take precautions that CDC recommends with, you know, wearing their masks or, with law enforcement we’re wearing gloves and keeping the six-foot distance from everybody and just trying to stay as safe as possible.”

“It’s definitely nothing that I would wish upon anybody,” he said, recalling his ordeal in the Sunday interview. “It’s really changed my perspective with my job and with life in general, thankful to be here. Today was my day off, sitting around here on the couch, but I was thankful to be bored sitting on my couch and not where I was a month ago.”

And though he’ll probably never know exactly how he caught COVID-19, Carswell assured that he’ll be forever grateful to the people at Flagler Hospital.

“I can’t say enough about how great they were, and they truly saved my life.”

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