Retired state Rep. Daley survives COVID-19

Retired state Rep. Peter J. Daley said he has religiously worn a mask in public for protection during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yet he still contracted the virus, possibly at the Washington County Courthouse two weeks ago, and found himself hospitalized with a temporary, rare heart condition caused by the disease.
“It’s so aggressive. It’s smart,” Daley said about his experience with COVID-19.
He said someone was coughing around him in a courtroom and it made him uneasy. He said he likely developed COVID-19 by touching a contaminated surface and his face.
“I had a weird feeling,” said Daley, of California Borough.
He later stopped at an urgent care center for a test, which proved negative. A subsequent test result came back positive for the virus, he said.
Soon his breathing was off and his physician told him to get to a hospital, where he learned that his heart chambers had reversed beats, and his blood-oxygen level had dropped.
He was given a cocktail of steroids at AHN Jefferson Hospital in Jefferson Hills, an approach that corrected his heartbeat.
“Everything’s normal,” Daley said Thursday, four days after he was released from Jefferson.
He said his physician could only find a few similar cases of the virus causing such a heart condition in New York. He watched as bodies were wheeled out of rooms as four deaths were attributed to the virus during his stay.
Daley said his wing at Jefferson was filled with COVID-19 patients and that they needed beds when he was sent home.
“It was like being in outer space,” said Daley, 70, who served 17 terms representing parts of Washington and Fayette counties in the state House as a Democrat before retiring in 2016.
“This is serious,” he said. “Not wearing a mask is a death sentence for yourself.”