Fairfield Man's Coronavirus Case 'Baffled' Doctors

FAIRFIELD, CT — A month after Chris Flynn began to experience symptoms of the new coronavirus, he still hasn’t regained his sense of smell or taste.

In late March, when Flynn got sick, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listed only three symptoms for the virus: fever, cough and shortness of breath. But Flynn’s case was different. He had sinus pain, body aches and lost the ability to taste and smell, yet barely ran a fever and had no cough.

“At the time, it wasn’t typical,” the Fairfield resident said, adding his doctors “were kind of baffled by it.”

Yet Flynn, who was exposed to the virus through a coworker with a more recognizable presentation of the disease, tested positive April 2. Since then, the CDC has added six additional symptoms to its coronavirus symptoms list, including loss of taste or smell.

Flynn’s case of the virus was mild. With the exception of his lingering inability to smell or taste, he was sick about a week and treated his symptoms with Tylenol, he said. Before he started to feel ill, two of his sons had been sick. The older boy, who has asthma, was diagnosed as a presumed positive coronavirus patient, despite suffering primarily from muscle soreness and not the severe cough he often develops, according to his mother and Flynn’s wife, Katie Flynn. Both boys recovered quickly, Chris said.

Many in Connecticut have not had the same speedy recovery. As of Sunday, there were 25,269 confirmed cases across the state, 1,924 of which were associated with the death of a patient, and 1,766 people were hospitalized with the virus, according to state data.

“We got very, very, very lucky,” said Katie, who, along with the couple’s third son, had minimal symptoms.

Katie was thankful Fairfield schools closed in mid March due to the threat of the virus, a move that may have prevented her sons from spreading it to their classmates and other community members, she said.

“Our biggest relief is that we are pretty confident that we didn’t expose anybody else,” she said, emphasizing how important it is that residents follow social distancing protocol to prevent transmission.

With the virus mostly behind them, Chris and Katie are both hoping to get tested for antibodies and donate their blood plasma to fight the disease.

“I feel like we don’t even know what we’re in yet,” Katie said of the virus.