Union City councilman's grandmother is 10th COVID-19 death at Hayward nursing home

UNION CITY, Calif. - A city councilman from Union City said his 84-year-old grandmother died on Monday in a Bay Area nursing home after contracting COVID-19. She was a resident at Gateway Care and Rehabilitation Center in Hayward. She is the tenth person to have died there. 66 people have tested positive for coronavirus.

Jaime Patino was hoping to take his grandmother Emma to lunch for her birthday next week. Pictures from last year's birthday show her eating cake with family. Sadly, Patino said his grandmother will not live to turn 85.

“We were told this morning it was just going to be a matter of hours,” said Patino.

It’s a complete 360 from last Wednesday when Patino saw his grandmother through a window. At that time, she had no fever. He did notice a cough. Early Friday morning, his grandmother was rushed to Kaiser San Leandro.

“That’s when the doctors found out she not only had COVID-19 but she also had pneumonia,” said Patino. “Her kidneys were starting to go bad. Her heart was under a lot of stress.”

Besides high blood pressure and arthritis, she had no underlying health conditions. At one point, Kaiser had called and said she was recovering.

“They told us if she continued along this process in a couple days get out of ICU,” said Patino. “We called it an Easter miracle and then everything drastically changed overnight.”

“There are certain ways that COVID-19 pneumonia acts differently than other bacterial pneumonia or the flu,” said Dr. Angela Rogers, a Stanford Pulmonary & Critical Car Physician.

Dr. Rogers said a lot patients seem to be better and then get worse. She’s not exactly sure why. One possibility is patients may be unable to cough out thick secretions causing their lungs to collapse.

On Monday at Gateway, the Best family visited their loved one who tested positive for COVID-19. He’s showing no symptoms.

“He has not left or gone anywhere,” said Rodney Best of Hayward. “There’s no reason he should have contracted the COVID-19 virus.”

Governor Newsom plans to send specialists and supplies to infected facilities. For Patino’s family, it's too late.

“Let’s make sure this doesn't happen to other families,” said Patino. “There’s a lot of grieving families right now. Last count nine died just from Gateway and unfortunately my grandma will be number 10.”

The councilman doesn't blame the staff there calling them overworked and understaffed. He does believe the center did not do an adequate job in containing the virus.