The verdict is in: Veteran Charlotte judge learns he tested positive for COVID-19
The verdict came in just before noon Friday for Superior Court Judge Donnie Hoover: He’s tested positive for COVID-19.
The 70-year-old jurist joins more than 250 fellow Charlotte-Mecklenburg residents — including his wife, Josephine — who have come down with the disease.
Hoover, who already was self-quarantining in his uptown condominium, said Friday that he is “doing fine” for now, other than monitoring a fluctuating fever that he is treating with Tylenol.
Josephine Hoover, his wife of nearly 50 years, has been hospitalized since March 16 with what up to now has been a much stronger set of coronavirus symptoms.
The couple started dating as high school students, and Hoover said the hardest part of being dragged into the pandemic is being separated from his wife.
“I’m worried about her and I feel helpless to do anything about her,” Hoover said, his voice grabbing. “We’ve been able to set up some Facetiming, but that’s not the same as being together in person.”
When Hoover first talked to the Observer earlier this week, the judge said he was “scared to death” of what the future might hold for Josephine and himself.
A judge’s wife has COVID-19. He awaits his test results. ‘I’m scared to death,’ he says
Both have pre-existing medical conditions that make them more susceptible to a more dangerous form of the disease. And there are uncertainties surrounding their immediate futures.
“If she gets released before I get my temperature under control, we won’t be able to stay together,” he said. “One of us will have to move out, which will probably be me.”
Hoover has been heartened by the expressions of support he has received since the story of his COVID-19 exposure first appeared. In fact, he said he’s been passing the time over the last two days responding to phone calls, emails and texts that have rolled in from miles around.
“Literally, I couldn’t hang up the phone before another call came in,” he said. “That’s been a great comfort. At a time like this, it’s good to know that there are people out there who are concerned and who will help out any way they can.”
For now, Josephine’s condition is his biggest concern. The retired longtime math teacher with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has kidney problems related to diabetes that have complicated her recovery.
“She’s holding in there. The report we got today says her kidneys have improved a little bit. Not much, but that’s a big deal for us,” Hoover said.
The judge’s own health could compromise his defenses against COVID-19. He says he already deals with high blood pressure and congestive heart failure.
In 2017, Hoover said, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a former of cancer that can weaken the body’s resistance to infection. After chemotherapy, Hoover said, it went into remission.
After Thanksgiving, the cancer came back.
Hoover began another round of weekly chemo in February. Because of the pandemic, the last two sessions have been canceled by his doctors.
“They don’t want me to be fighting off the coronavirus and having that chemotherapy at the same time,” he said. “It may be a problem.”
If his symptoms worsen, Hoover said, he is not one of those types who will suffer in silence.
He recalled a night when he experienced chest pains, woke Josephine, and told her she was driving him to the emergency room.
When he got his cardiologist on the phone and described his symptoms, the doctor told him to go back to bed, that he only had indigestion.
“That’s all well and good,” Hoover recalled saying. “But somebody is going to have to tell me that at the hospital.”
And then he laughed.
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