For Locals At Greater Risk, COVID-19 A Serious Threat

Debbie Lebo has been cautious about sanitizing everything around her for years. Nothing is spared her alcohol treatments. Not countertops, not doorknobs, not appliances, not cabinet handles. The reason is that she has lupus, an autoimmune disease that can have devastating effects on body tissues and organs.

Now comes a double whammy: COVID-19, a which can come with the novel coronavirus sweeping the globe, the latest strain of an ugly family of viruses, but much more deadly than its ancestors. The velocity of its spread has sent Debbie’s decontamination program into overdrive.

It’s not enough that the 54-year-old Bristol Borough resident contends with her occasional flareups, feeling like she has a hangover and the flu at the same time, and a mild version of those symptoms daily, she worries about her mother, Peg Lebo, 79, who uses an inhaler once a day for her chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Add to that, both women can’t always adhere to the restrictions that all people, especially older citizens, and people with compromised health issues, stay home. Debbie travels outside to go to doctor’s appointments and treatments for her lupus.

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Peg goes out to the store or the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions. Other family members help when they can. But there are times when it’s necessary to go it alone, Debbie said.

“My son Kyle doesn’t drive yet so I have to take him to work. And I do go out to walk when I get stir crazy,” she said.

The family had a scare last week when Kyle was sent home from work at a fast food restaurant and told not to come back until he was tested and had a doctor’s note.

“He had the sniffles. Probably his allergies,” his mother said, adding that it took days to get checked out and given the OK to go back to work.

Peg, the widow of Bristol Borough police officer Al Lebo, said that the new prevention measures make life more difficult for her.

“Since this started, I really just sit on my front porch. I’ve already had to cancel one doctor’s appointment. Thank God that Debbie does the cleaning,” she said.

Debbie has three children, Kyle and his twin sister Kaitlyn are 19, and Ryan is 28 and lives in Bristol Township’s Croydon section with his wife Jamie and their 4-year-old son Jaxon.

“I can’t wait to hug my grandson again,” Debbie said. “I miss all of them.”

How to patients like Debbie and Peg square their necessity to break quarantine? Like many others trying to navigate their way through disrupted daily routines, even as experts from all over the country issue dire warnings about exposure to the coronavirus, they take it a day at a time.

Dr. Ron Goren, a specialist in infectious diseases, said people with immune systems and other chronic conditions that weaken the ability to fight the virus should follow the CDS’s recommendations.

“Damaged lungs in patients with emphysema, or damaged from diabetes and heart disease in a person under stress” add to risk factors, said Goren, who is affiliated with St. Mary Medical Center in Middletown and Nazareth Hospital in Northeast Philadelphia, both under Trinity Heath Mid-Atlantic.

He advises those who venture outside to wear a mask, wash hands, wipe handles to remove any contagion, exercise social distancing. Care should be taken in hallways or touching elevator buttons.

“Again, with a mask and handwashing prior to leaving the home they should be OK,” Goren said.

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