Dan Pilder

Our dad Dan is currently in the ICU at Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio.  He tested positive for the Covid-19 virus on March 19 and is in critical condition.  We are using this site to keep family and friends updated in one place.  


Sometime during the week of March 2, dad started to experience some common cold symptoms.  He took his normal home remedies and continued with his normal daily routines.  By Thursday, he was really feeling the cold symptoms and stopped going into the office.   On Sunday, March 8, his symptoms started turning flu-like.  He woke up Monday morning with a fever and we began to treat what we thought was the flu with over-the-counter medicine, lots of liquids, and rest.  By Wednesday morning, his fever was increasing and he was shivering uncontrollably from the chills.  Mom took him to see our family doctor where they tested him for both the flu and pneumonia.  Both tests came back negative.  We asked if they thought he should be tested for Covid-19, but since he had not been in contact with anyone who was at risk (that we knew of) and had not traveled to any of the "at risk" countries, they did not test him.   They believed at that time that he had the flu and the results of the flu test were a false negative. 


Dad continued to have the same flu like symptoms over the next couple of days and on Friday evening his fever finally broke.  By Saturday, March 14th, Dad was doing much better.  He was hanging out with us and watching TV.  He got his appetite  back and ate dinner with us.  We were so happy that he was finally feeling better and on the mend.  When he woke up Sunday morning, he was still fever free.  Although he still felt very weak, he felt well enough to hang out with us, have conversations with us, laugh with us, etc.  


How quickly that changed....  By Sunday afternoon, dad started to look off.  Not only did he start to experience difficulty breathing, he started having these coughing fits where his lips turned purple and he was not making any sense.  We knew  something was not right and called 911.  By the time the paramedics got to the house, dad's oxygen levels were extremely low..  His sugar levels were also high because his blood pressure had fallen to 70/40.  


Dad was admitted to ICU on Sunday evening.  They tested him again for the flu, which again came back negative.  They finally decided to test him for Covid-19 and the results finally came back Thursday.  


We appreciate everyone's support, words of hope and encouragement, phone calls, text messages, offers to feed us and more.  We need all the prayers we can get right now as Dad is not breathing on his own and is running a very high fever.  Please pray for our dad.  We cannot be there with him at the hospital, which is absolutely killing us!  Mom and the kids and I are on strict quarantine as we wait for the results.  Andy, Anna, and Anat are in quarantine as well.  Dad's hospital is on lock down and no visitors are being allowed in.   


Thank you all for visiting and for your continued prayers.