DETROIT _ The man who raised Keith Gambrell, who loved him like a son and married his mother, died in a blue recliner of novel coronavirus in his Grosse Pointe Woods home.
Gary Fowler, 56, went to the emergency rooms of three metro Detroit hospitals in the weeks leading up to his death, begging for a coronavirus test, begging for help because he was having difficulty breathing, but was repeatedly turned away, Keith said.
"My dad passed at home, and no one tried to help him," Keith, 33, of northwest Detroit said through tears. "He asked for help, and they sent him away. They turned him away."
In the hours before his death, breathing was so difficult, Gary slept sitting up in the bedroom chair, while his wife, Cheryl Fowler, dozed in the bed by his side. When she woke, her husband of nearly 24 years was gone.
Before he took his last breaths, Gary had scrawled on a piece of paper: "Heart beat irregular ... oxygen level low."
"My little brother called me, screaming, 'Daddy won't wake up!' " Keith said.
By the time Keith got across town to their house on the morning of April 7, police and emergency medical workers had already arrived.
His dad was still in the recliner. A bluish tinge had settled on his lips and fingers.
"I went up and talked to him," Keith said, his voice breaking as he held back tears. "I told him I love him, and that I'll see him again one day, and that I'm sorry we couldn't even have a funeral for him.
"I just felt so bad because he was begging for his life, and medical professionals did nothing for him."
The virus, which has hit Detroit harder than any other city in Michigan _ infecting nearly 34,000 people and killing 2,812, of whom at least 8,026 are in the city of Detroit, where 747 have died _ has brought renewed attention to health disparities for people of color.
"About 33% of the cases of COVID-19 in this entire state of Michigan are in African Americans, and about 40% ... of the deaths," Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the chief medical executive for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, said during a Facebook Live interview April 16 with Detroit's Civil Rights, Inclusion and Equal Opportunity Department. "And that's incredibly concerning. We know that African Americans are only about 14% of the entire population."
Keith lives in Northwest Detroit's 48235 ZIP code, a coronavirus hot zone with the highest infection rate per capita _ with 162 cases per 10,000 residents _ and the highest number of confirmed cases of the virus at 724, according to data released April 17 by the city.
Keith's grandfather, David Fowler, lived in the Boston Edison District. His 48202 ZIP code is in the top 10 for coronavirus infections, too, with 114 cases per 10,000 residents.
David Fowler died of COVID-19 just hours before his son Gary was taken by the same disease.
Denise Fair, Detroit's chief public health officer, said last Friday that the ZIP code data still are huge under-estimations. Coronavirus testing remains a barrier for many in the community, as does access to care.
"It's estimated that there are upwards of 10 people with undetected infections for every confirmed case, and in some communities, the estimates are even higher," she said.
