Kevin Brookman was not feeling well.
He said he had moderate coronavirus symptoms including a cough, shortness of breath, and no energy. Brookman has a number of underlying conditions that put him more at risk to get the coronavirus, so he called his doctor, who recommended he get a test.
That was the hard part, according to Brookman it was, “…a fairly difficult process to get through to the actual testing appointment. Because I was transferred around, several people said they would call me back, nobody called back, and then I finally got aggravated…and I called and asked to speak to a supervisor.”
The supervisor got a screener to call Brookman the next day and he got an appointment to go to a drive-thru testing facility outside Hartford Hospital.
“They were testing in a parking lot in one of their buildings off of Jefferson Street. And as soon as I got there there was a police cruiser sitting outside, there was a Hartford Hospital security officer standing in the driveway, there was nobody in line," Brookman said.
Brookman said he did not have to wait in a long line, and got another pleasant surprise when it was his turn to get tested.
“I talked with several people that have had it, and they told me how they would put a Q-tip up your nose and it wasn’t painful, it was just really invasive. So I was kinda surprised when they told me open up your mouth and say ‘ah’…and he said, ‘Yeah we don’t do the nose anymore, we’re just swabbing the inside of your mouth.’“
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The hospital told Brookman it would take about seven days to learn if he contracted coronavirus.
“I haven’t gotten my results back yet, but hopefully it’s all gonna come back negative. But it’s something none of us have ever gone through anything like this before.”
