5 Hominy First Responders Working After Recovering From COVID-19

Five Hominy first responders are back at work after they all tested positive for COVID-19 in the same week.

They said people still need to take the virus seriously and do what they can to stay healthy.

Coby Surritte, Connor Wadkins and Pete Burris are all Hominy First Responders, all say they tested positive for COVID-19 around the same time and all made full recoveries.

“I was concerned for my kids. I have got two boys that still live with me,” said Hominy Fire Chief Coby Surritte.

These are three of five Hominy first responders who Surritte says tested positive for COVID-19 in the same week. Most of them had similar symptoms that lasted days.

"We don't know if we brought it, we don't know if we dealt with a patient that had it that was never diagnosed, we don't know," said Surritte.

All 5 responders say they are thankful their symptoms were mild- that hasn't been everyone's experience. Pete Burris's wife started coughing, within days he was in the hospital and eventually put on a ventilator. Doctors told Pete his wife probably wasn't going to make it.

"They got the prayer chain going and she started turning and the next morning the doc called, and they were lowering the vent settings," said Burris.

Slowly, Cecilia made her recovery.

"You are a miracle, there is no way around this," said Burris. 

Now she is home.

"I don't know if I gave it to my wife, I don't know if my wife gave it to me, I don't know if I gave it to my coworkers, I don't know if my coworkers gave it to me. There is no way to track this. It is a serious deal. I wouldn't want anybody to go through what I went through. I wouldn't want anybody's children to go through what my children went through," said Burris.