Lawyer at the center of the New Rochelle, NY, outbreak is ‘on the road to full recovery’

A lawyer who’s been tied to a cluster of coronavirus cases in hard-hit New Rochelle, New York, appears to be recovering from the illness, his wife said Wednesday.

Lawrence Garbuz is awake and alert and “seems to be on the road to full recovery,” his wife, Adina Lewis Garbuz, said in a Facebook post.

“I would have waited longer to share but since so many of you have been on this journey with me, my family and my community asking and waiting to hear, I felt I could not hold off any longer,” Lewis Garbuz wrote.

Garbuz was among the first patients in New York City to be diagnosed with Covid-19, about two weeks ago, and his case was considered to be the first of community spread, meaning the source of the infection was not known. As of Wednesday morning, 538 of the more than 2,380 cases in New York state were in Westchester County, where Garbuz lives.

About 1,000 people were asked to self-quarantine after the first cases in New York.

His wife, two children and a neighbor were also infected, but Garbuz was the only one hospitalized.

When Garbuz first woke up, hours after his breathing tube was taken out, he told his wife, “I love you so much,” and had no idea what was wrong with him, she said Wednesday.

Garbuz went to the doctor “many times,” and it took days to figure out his diagnosis, Lewis Garbuz wrote last week.

“This was all new, he had no risk factors to presume he had this,” Lewis Garbuz wrote.

Lewis Garbuz thanked the medical professionals who are caring for her husband, pointing out how taxed they are now that the virus is spreading exponentially.

“Hospitals and medical staff are being taxed more than ever and they are trying their very best to keep their patients, medical personnel and all of us safe,” Lewis Garbuz wrote.

“Please be kind and understanding of all medical professionals who are suffering the same as us yet with a greater burden.”

Lewis Garbuz is still in quarantine.