Paige King knew something was wrong the moment she pulled up to her house on the evening of Oct. 26.
Her partner, Dr. Carlos Araujo-Preza, was sitting on the hood of his car in their driveway. He was wearing scrubs and a respirator — the one he'd worn in the intensive care unit each day while treating coronavirus patients — and he had a duffel bag packed at his feet.
King got out of her car and asked what he was doing.
"I have COVID," he said.
As a critical care pulmonologist, he'd spent months treating hundreds of critically ill COVID-19 patients at HCA Houston Healthcare in Tomball. The sickest of the sick. The vast majority of those in need of hospital care were elderly or suffered from underlying health problems.
