MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. — Brandi Rabon has always been close to and relied upon her big sister Carmen, but this last month the 45-year old Charlotte mother of three needed her big sister in a very big way. Her sister is Dr. Carmen Teague – the head of internal medicine for Atrium Health Medical Group.
"Both Carmen and I thought it was the flu," Rabon said. "I didn’t want to go see my doctor, because I didn’t want to been exposed to COVID."
She didn’t know then that she already had been exposed to it.
It was March 18 – there was no Stay at Home Order yet. Rabon, who has no underlying health conditions, only had a headache and fever — no shortness of breath, and barely even a cough.
"Because she was early on – we had so little data I found myself saying, 'I don’t know, I don’t know if it's related to COVID,'" Teague said.
That was until Rabon got a call – she’d been at church with a small group of people the weekend before.
"The person who sat directly behind me, he was not ill and I didn’t speak to him I didn’t touch him – but he got sick the very next day," Rabon said. "Goes to show, this is why you stay home — you can shed virus and make people ill when you don’t feel ill yourself."
That’s when Teague knew Rabon had to get tested.
"I was shocked," Teague reflected. "I remember calling her, 'I don’t know how to tell you this- you’re positive.'"
Teague said her sister asked if she was kidding. She wasn't.
It took 12 days of feeling bad and working with doctors at Atrium's virtual hospital, and another few weeks of not feeling like herself, but Rabon says she is now fully recovered and trying to donate her plasma to help others.
To do that she has to test negative for the virus.
"Sounds all well and good but tests are hard to come by right now," she said. "Don’t want to use testing for someone who’s recovered when so many people are sick and need testing."
"I think it allowed me to be much more compassionate with patients because this is new to the medical profession and society," Teague said. "To walk through it with your family its made me a better doctor and a much more compassionate listener."
Rabon is planning to donate that plasma later this week in Charlotte — the intention is that it will be used to help another patient in the area battling the virus.
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