Bridgewater woman with virus wishes testing could be reformed

BRIDGEWATER — Adair County has had nine positive cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic started, six are recovered. One of those cases was Lindsay Pruitt.

Lindsay and her husband, Doug, a nurse, have two children at home. Doug has been living away from the home during Lindsay’s illness and she has endured a long journey since first coming down with a fever. Lindsay is a stay-at-home mom.

Pruitt reached out to the Adair County Free Press recently wishing to share her story of the coronavirus in order to be at least one local face to the virus.

Pruitt came down with that first fever about eight weeks ago and called Adair County Public Health to see if she could be tested for the virus. They weren’t able to because she didn’t meet the criteria they had at that time for testing.

A couple of days later, Pruitt ended up qualifying for a COVID-19 test through Test Iowa, a program that began April 21 intended to better test Iowans for the virus.

Pruitt had to wait six days for her appointment, which was in the parking lot of Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. Iowa National Guard soldiers met cars at the entrance to the parking lot where Pruitt was asked to flash her identification for them so they knew who she was. Then patients proceeded through the line, only opening their car window for the test itself. The entire process, Pruitt said in a Facebook post, lasted about 15 minutes.

Once she was tested, it took about six days to get her results. In that 12-day window from getting her appointment to finding the results, Pruitt admits she still didn’t think she had COVID-19.

“I didn’t think much of it. I thought that taking the test was a waste of time and I thought it was just allergies,” Pruitt admitted.

In that time, Pruitt’s symptoms were also worsening drastically. Her oxygen levels would plummet at times. She had a cough that was accompanied by drainage in her throat, but her worst symptom has been a stiff neck and bad headache.

“I’ve had to be on medication for the headache and that barely touches it,” Pruitt said. “It makes you scared you’re having a stroke, the headaches are that bad.”

In the days since Pruitt first became ill testing has changed drastically. Those in large workplaces have been able to be tested and large outbreaks have occurred at meat processing or packing plants around Iowa. Other focus groups such as medical workers have been allowed to be tested.

Test Iowa has also expanded into other areas of the state by now, however Pruitt still wishes more attention could be given to the more rural places of the state like Adair County, rather than more populated areas.

Pruitt’s children, who were unable to be tested at first, have now been tested and their results were negative.

The Pruitts say they are very thankful for the professional care they received by Adair County Public Health and Adair County Health System after Lindsay’s positive result.

“My biggest thing is if the state would stop focusing so much on the Test Iowa sites and allow our counties to test more. Focus on everywhere as opposed to these big sites,” Pruitt said.