Nurse Who Came Home From Hawaii With Sniffles Found Out She Had Coronavirus

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. (CBSLA) -- A Colorado nurse says she came home from a medical conference in Hawaii with sniffles. Three weeks later, she found out she had the coronavirus.

Lisa Merck, a 50-year-old a nurse practitioner with a clinic in Crested Butte, was on her way home from Hawaii on Feb. 19 when she started developing common-cold-like symptoms.

"We got back and my muscles ached, my bones ached and my joints ached really bad," she told KDVR. "It felt like someone was stabbing me with an ice pick and I was like, 'I wonder if I have the flu.'"

Merck chalked the symptoms up to traveling.

"[The coronavirus] didn't even cross my mind," she told The Colorado Sun. "I felt totally fine in Hawaii. We had a great time. Things just started when I got back."

Merck was initially turned away from a test for the coronavirus because she didn't fit the state's criteria. But in the meantime, her health eventually deteriorated to the point where she headed to the emergency room.

"I felt really short of breath, I felt very fatigued," she told KDVR. "Finally, on Sunday night, I told my husband, 'I need you take me to the ER. I don't feel well — whenever I stand, I feel like I'm going to faint."

She, who described her ordeal in a video posted on Facebook, was finally tested for COVID-19 on March 8 and results came back positive on March 11.

"I have no idea how I caught it," she said.

Merck is in isolation with her husband, who wasn't tested for coronavirus, but felt ill after the Hawaii trip, until at least March 22 or until she's asymptomatic. Then, she must test negative for the coronavirus twice -- 24 hours apart -- before can be in public again.

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