'We're surviving': Mother & daughter battling COVID-19 on different floors of Oakland hospital

Thursday, January 14, 2021
OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- In Alameda County, there are more than 400 people in the hospital with coronavirus. Among them is a mother and daughter who, are both in the same Oakland hospital.

38-year-old Jackylyn Zarandona was connected to an oxygen tank at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland when we spoke to her via FaceTime.

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"At first it's really horrible, a horrible feeling, you thought you were going to die, but you know we just gotta do what we gotta do," says Zarandona.
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While Jackylyn is alone in her room, she's not without family in the building. Her 62-year-old mom, Bing Sarmiento, who she lives with, also has COVID-19 and is hospitalized on a different floor of the same hospital.

When we talked with Sarmiento she was also connected to an oxygen machine.



"I was supposed to go home yesterday, but I don't know what happened. All of a sudden my oxygen was dropping again," Sarmiento said.

VIDEO: Wife sees husband's decline from COVID-19 through FaceTime
Wife sees husband's decline from COVID-19 through FaceTime


Jackylyn came to the hospital Monday, Bing came Tuesday. The two believe Bing came into contact with someone who had COVID-19 while she was working at Walgreens.
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Sarmiento says that her asthma is problematic with the coronavirus. Her daughter's case is different though, and has to do with pneumonia and COVID-19.
"Stay home guys, be safe, because COVID is no joke," says Sarmiento.

Doctors have told them both to lay on their stomachs and they've been doing just that.

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"Doctors are reassuring us, every day they come in, the nurses and the doctors, they are so optimistic," says Zarandona.
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And that positivity has rubbed off.



"We can do it, we're surviving, it's just COVID," says Jackylyn.

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