Student RA Sick with COVID in the Dorm for Six Days, FSU Aware but Mostly Unresponsive
Jasmine, a junior at Frostburg State University and Resident Assistant at an on-campus dormitory, tested positive for COVID-19 and learned of her results on Thursday, Oct. 29. She spent the three days prior to receiving her results quarantined in her dormitory because she says that, despite knowing of her symptoms, FSU did not provide testing, alternative housing, or support services for her. The following is a chronology of the experience, according to her:
Sunday, October 25: In the late evening, Jasmine begins to experience the following symptoms; headache, sore throat.
Monday, October 26: Jasmine wakes up in the late morning with the following symptoms; headache, shortness of breath, sore throat, and she described “feeling disgusting, and you know when you can just smell and taste the sick on yourself?”
She called Brady Health Center, the on-campus healthcare provider around 2:45 p.m. she said. The receptionist picks up the phone and Jasmine reported saying, “I may have COVID” and going through her symptoms which included chills, weakness, cough, shortness of breath, and a temperature of 102 degrees Fahrenheit.
Jasmine said the receptionist suggested that she go to the nearby UPMC Urgent Care clinic in Frostburg and “did not mention getting tested on campus.” Jasmine noted that she was not offered transportation nor did the employee at Brady Health inquire about whether she had a way to get to the clinic. Before ending the call, Jasmine said the employee promised that “they’d call me to check on me tomorrow.” She said that the Brady Health Center did not provide instructions to her about self-quarantining or offer alternative housing, nor did the employee tell her how to communicate her test results to the clinic when she received them.
Jasmine does not have a car, so a friend who she’s been in close physical proximity to drove her to the urgent care clinic in the Frostburg Plaza. They accepted her Medicaid insurance and gave her a nasal swab test. She returned to the dorm for the evening.
After being tested on Monday, Jasmine reached out to The Bottom Line via social media to say that her experience “makes no sense to me because it was my belief that if a student may have covid they’d be moved off campus” and that as an RA she interacts with students often. She told TBL that she doesn’t have food in her dorm and “it’s very difficult to stay isolated because I need to eat.” She concluded, “I feel like the university isn’t fulfilling their duties in keeping the campus safe.”
Tuesday, October 27: Jasmine said she continued to self-isolate. She reported that Brady Health did not call her to check in on Tuesday, though she is sure they said they would. In the afternoon, one of her 18 residents came to her room asking to borrow a broom and Jasmine wasn’t wearing a mask, “it just happened so fast that I didn’t have a chance to put it on,” she said.
Wednesday, October 28: Jasmine continued to self-isolate, she said, and still no call from FSU or Brady Health.
Thursday, October 29: Jasmine reported that she wakes up around 11:00 a.m. to a call from UPMC Western Maryland with her test results and they told her she is positive for COVID-19. According to her, she called Brady Health within minutes of learning of her results and is told to upload the results into the FSU COVID-19 Portal. Unable to do this because she received her diagnosis over the phone, Jasmine said she called UPMC back where they take her email address and assure her they will email them to her.
At 11:14 a.m., Jasmine messages TBL, “Update: I am covid positive and I have been”
Approximately an hour later, Brady Health initiated a call to Jasmine she said, where the Nurse Practitioner tells her that they still haven’t received her results and emails an information release form to Jasmine which will allow Brady Health to reach out to UPMC and get the results themselves. During this call, Jasmine reported, “the nurse told me that because of the tightness in my chest, she didn’t feel comfortable sending me to the quarantine hotel. She said it worried her.” Jasmine does not remember the name of the Nurse Practitioner. At 12:49 p.m., Jasmine received the email from Brady Health and gave her permission for the university to reach out to get her test results.
At this point, Jasmine started to call her close friends to let them know of her positive results. The group hypothesizes about where she might have contracted the virus. She had attended the University Programming Council’s Game Night on Saturday, Oct. 24 held in the Lane University Center, but said she wore a mask and maintained social distance.
Around 4:30 p.m., a friend of Jasmine’s called the Allegany County Health Department “to try and figure out what they’re supposed to do,” she said. Contact tracing had not yet been initiated at this time, according to Jasmine, and her friends were told they would hear back from the Health Department once the process began.
At 4:45 p.m., Jasmine called TBL with the details of the previous few days. She reported that she continued to reside in her dorm room. “I’ve been waiting for someone to call me so I know what to do,” she said, “I’m the one with COVID and they didn’t even tell me what to do.” She said she is surprised that she contracted the virus, “I don’t go anywhere, I don’t do anything. I did everything I’m supposed to do; I wore a mask, I used hand sanitizer, I stayed in small groups, I cleaned, and I still got COVID.” Jasmine told TBL that she’s taking all of her courses online.
At 5:12 p.m., the interview is interrupted when Jasmine received an incoming call from, according to her, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. Jeff Graham. The call lasts only two minutes.
At 5:15 p.m., Jasmine called TBL back and said that Graham told her, “the nurse can’t provide the care I need” and that she needs to return home while she recovers from the virus. Jasmine begins to cry saying that “this is so frustrating. I live with someone who is elderly.” She reported that “they won’t take me to the hotel and are making me go home.” Jasmine is from Dundalk, Maryland, about 150 miles from FSU, and wouldn’t have transportation unless her boyfriend who lives in Dundalk is willing to come west to retrieve her. She repeats that Graham told her, “we can’t house you in the hotel because of your symptoms.”
At 5:19 p.m., the interview is interrupted again when Jasmine said she has an incoming call from a nurse at Brady Health Center.
At 5:24 p.m., she called TBL for the final time and said, “they’re forcing me to go to the emergency room.” She says the nurse suggests that Jasmine call an ambulance if she doesn’t have transportation. Jasmine claims that the nurse told her that, “if they discharge me to home, to quarantine in the dorm and they’ll give me a call tomorrow.” The call ends after 1 minute.
From there, Jasmine asked the friends who have already been exposed to her for a ride to UPMC Western Maryland in Cumberland. She texted to say she left campus at 5:33 p.m. and arrived at the hospital at 5:48 p.m. TBL met her at the hospital, and from a distance photographed Jasmine as she entered the facility.
At 7:35 p.m., students received notification that Frostburg State University is transitioning to online instruction until at least Nov. 4. and Jasmine texted, “I’m glad they finally did that.”
At 11:22 p.m., Jasmine wrote by text, “I know it’s late I just got discharged and wanted to let you know.” Her friends came to pick her up, she said, and she returned to her dorm. Jasmine texts, “hopefully they don’t keep me there” and that “Brady said they’d call me in the morning, if they don’t call back by noon I’ll call them probably.”
Back at the Dorm
Jasmine said that a number of student-athletes, a group that has disproportionately contracted the virus this semester, live on her floor in the dorm and that she’s interacted with them, but argued, “as far as I know I haven’t been in contact with a positive person.” She also said that after being tested on Monday she was “not on RA duty” and would be “contacting the hall director to let her know what’s going on.”
After testing positive on Thursday and telling a few friends, some of Jasmine’s residents found out about her results. One resident, a Junior named Ismerai, said that another resident and close friend texted her to tell her about Jasmine’s positive result. Because of the close contact between the friends and Jasmine, they decided to go and get tested in the late afternoon.
“When I first got the text, I was freaking out and texting my friend back like, ‘She got COVID, bro what? I need to get tested. Where are centers? Will our entire floor have to quarantine?’” Around 4 p.m., the two went to Health Matters Urgent Care in Cumberland and were tested, which cost Ismerai $30. She said Health Matters told her, “you should not go to class and need to self-quarantine until you get the results.” The friends expect to know their results in the next 2-3 days.
Ismerai says that she went off-campus to be tested for a reason, “I absolutely do not trust Brady Health,” she said, “I do not trust the way they or the university have handled COVID and I’ll be more confident with my results if I go off campus.” Ismerai feels that “the university is not taking asymptomatic transmission seriously,” and will follow Health Matters’ guidance to self-isolate even though she doesn’t feel sick.
As far as transmission goes, Ismerai’s theory is that Jasmine, who mostly stays in the dorms, might have contracted it from the groups that congregate in the third floor lounge of her building, often in groups of 7 or more, with several students observed without masks on multiple occasions. She says the lounge furniture was once set up to maintain social distancing, but students have moved the couches around and that residents of her building do not observe the one guest rule when using the space. Thus residents of other dormitories often outnumber the number of students who live in her building.
“From a science perspective, this is a mess,” said Ismerai, a STEM major. “I feel like our health isn’t important to FSU, because if it was, we wouldn’t have come back this semester.”
Off-Campus Quarantine Housing
In late July, President Nowaczyk announced FSU’s quarantine/isolation plan and wrote to the campus community, “on-campus students (residence halls and Edgewood residents) who choose not to return home for isolation will be transported to an off-campus hotel to be isolated in a private room for the appropriate period. Those students will receive food from Chartwells, get daily health check-ins from Brady Health, and have access to WiFi so they can continue their studies.”
On September 14, 2020, Vice President for Administration and Finance Leon Wyden, Jr. identified the quarantine hotel as the Quality Inn in Frostburg to the Institutional Priorities and Resources Committee. He reported that $192,461 in CARES Strengthening Institution grant funds “supports the contract with Quality Inn to house students requiring isolation due to COVID exposure/positive tests.” The Quality Inn is located on New Georges Creek Road next to Burger King.
Students placed in quarantine complained to President Nowaczyk during a virtual chat on Tuesday, Oct. 20 that the food served to them was “undercooked” and delivered infrequently. As part of the investigation into that issue, TBL visited the Quality Inn and spoke with students in quarantine. One, a student-athlete, reported that he had been placed at the Quality Inn as a precaution because, though he had not yet received his results back, he was assumed positive because of his symptoms and a close contact teammate had tested positive.
Therefore, both in policy reported by Wyden, and in practice as reported by a student in quarantine, FSU has used the Quality Inn as both verified positive isolation housing, as well as presumptive positive quarantine housing for students this semester. It is unknown why Jasmine was not relocated to the hotel following her conversation with Brady Health on Monday.
Testing Services on Campus
Jasmine said that when she called Brady Health on Monday she was showing symptoms and told the receptionist so. On numerous occasions, FSU has reported that symptomatic testing would be offered on campus and conducted by Brady Health. An early assurance of this testing availability was provided in an email on Aug. 20 that read, “certified results reported will include surveillance testing, Brady Health testing of individuals showing symptoms, and verified results from other sources that are uploaded to the University’s portal.”
On a call to Brady Health on Thursday, Oct. 29, when asked about symptomatic testing, the receptionist said, “we’d schedule a telehealth appointment and the decision about whether to test will be made based on your symptoms.”
Associate Vice President Graham elaborated on this topic during a virtual chat with the Division of Student Affairs on Oct. 29, hosted by SGA Student Affairs Chair Delanie Blubaugh. In response to a question about symptomatic testing, Graham said, “based on symptomatology, an appropriate clinical decision will be made by the staff at Brady Health.” He reported that Brady Health only tests symptomatic individuals and that “sometimes they refer externally” to other testing facilities. He also told those on the recorded video call that the university has “finite resources” and decisions are made “based on financial and human resources.” He told students, “there is no possible way to test everyone.”
During the meeting, Graham also mentioned the numerous indicators that would trigger a campus closure, including prevalence rate, incidence rate, and positivity rate, among others. One of those indicators, symptomatic testing conducted by Brady Health Center, was cited as the reason for the pausing of in-person instruction through Nov. 4.
In the press release, FSU wrote, “it is with an abundance of caution that Frostburg State University has decided to pause in-person instruction effective 8 p.m. today (Thursday, Oct. 29), until at least Wednesday, Nov. 4, due to recent increases of symptomatic cases monitored by Brady Health Center, coupled with community spread in the region and related indicators FSU is monitoring.”
Community Spread of COVID-19 in Allegany County
In the days leading up to FSU’s decision to pause in-person instruction, the number of positive cases in Allegany County spiked significantly. On Wednesday, Oct. 28, the Allegany County Health Department announced 50 new cases, the largest single increase at any point since the pandemic began. And over the week prior, the overall positivity rate in the county exceeded 5%. Over the course of 11 days, the county has identified 179 positive cases.
Following the announcement of the large increase in cases in the last week and a half, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s Communications Director Mike Ricci said on Oct. 28, “while the new cases in Garrett [County] are generally in the community, most of the new cases in Allegany are linked to Frostburg State. We are closely monitoring the situation.”
However, FSU refuted the claim by Governor Hogan’s spokesperson and issued a statement saying that the assertion, “runs counter to FSU’s information and that presented by the Allegany County Health Department.” FSU went on to write, “we are awaiting full results of surveillance testing conducted this week, but preliminary results do not show a significant change from previous reports.”
Previous Reports of Caseloads by FSU
The most recent update to the FSU COVID-19 testing dashboard was provided on Oct. 20. The reported results were from Oct. 4 through Oct. 17 and included 28 positive results with an overall positivity rate of 5.13%. The Oct. 20 announcement represented the single largest positive caseload report, even higher than the initial universal, campus-wide testing conducted in August. Moreover, prior to Oct. 20, the highest ever reported positivity rate was 1.81%.
FSU has not provided any caseload information for tests administered after Oct. 17, nearly two weeks ago. According to Liz Medcalf, Director of Communications for FSU, the university seeks to provide bi-weekly updates to the testing dashboard, with the next anticipated announcement due on Tuesday, Nov. 3. This lapse in time between updates is unique to FSU, and in a survey of other University System of Maryland and regional campuses, Frostburg is the only one that does not provide updates weekly or more often.
Thus, while FSU reports that the decision to delay in-person instruction is due to an increase in symptomatic test results on campus, they have yet to announce how many positive cases they’ve identified. It is further unknown why on Oct. 28 FSU refuted Governor Hogan’s spokesperson’s assertion that spiking figures locally were attributable to FSU, only to announce the very next day that in-person classes were being paused, in part, because of the increase in cases on campus.
The Morning After the Hospital Visit
At 10:30 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 30, the day after receiving her positive results, Jasmine reached out by text message, “I feel awful, no chest pain or shortness of breath. Both my ears hurt now.” She reports that she is “still on campus” but has heard from Brady Health. “They told me the nurse practitioner Katie would call me,” wrote Jasmine. It is assumed that Jasmine is referring to Kaitlyn Morral, the Director of Brady Health. Jasmine has not yet been told where, or if, she will be relocated and wrote, “I’m hoping they put me in the hotel because I feel so bad being in my dorm!” Politely turning down an offer of additional assistance, Jasmine wrote, “I’m okay right now, not much I need unless you’ve got the cure?”
The Author
77 Comments
Jeff Graham has never and will never have the students of Frostburg as his first priority. How he has stayed in that position for so long is baffling.
It is good the university told her to go to the hospital, chest pain should be evaluated by a doctor.
Hi,
I am the student in the article. They only told me to go to the hospital after I was told I was positive. I told them when I called Monday I had chest pain and shortness of breath and they told me to just go to urgent care. So while yes it’s “good” they told me. Taking into consideration everything, it was them “caring” too late.
Did urgent care assess your chest pain?
No, they took the covid swab and that’s it
This is so disturbing. I had just emailed the University about the lack of transparency about positivity rates on campus yesterday, and then this. The lack of interest in the health and well being of this poor student is appalling.
My question is, what is FSU doing with the CARES money if not distributing more to students or helping students to quarantine who need to ???
As an alumni and someone who knows the importance to admin to keep the school open, and as someone who has difficulty understanding why people in positions of power have no interest in public health and safety, I question if FSU has placed HEPA filters on are air quality systems in the lane center and every single building? There is no reason to sacrifice student health and emotional well being to save a few pennies.
We used to call it”Brady Death.”
All buildings should be installed with HEPA filters. All buildings should be cleaned regularly for high traffic areas at least every few hours. Students should be hand washing more than sanitizer use. And the adults need to grow up and help!
I think anyone would know that The Brady Health center is NOT equipped to treat students who present with serious medical issues such as chest pain and difficulty breathing. Are we supposed to be under the illusion that they’re an emergency department?? If they tell you to go to the hospital, you should do it. Not wait around for different answers because you didn’t like the first one given to you. I’m quite sure we are supposed to view students as adults yet they act helpless and like they can’t make their own decisions. This story is ridiculous and attention seeking and in NO WAY reflects the safety measures FSU is taking to protect students, faculty and staff.
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