TEMPLE, Texas — A Central Texas man and Army veteran is fighting for his life at Baylor Scott and White Medical Center in Temple after he contracted the Delta variant of COVID-19.
Longtime friend Lisa Bovee started a GoFundMe for Isaac Cary where she described him as a man who loved to dance and "you've most likely seen him about town spinning the ladies around the dance floor."
"He's friendly, funny," Bovee wrote. "ALWAYS wants to help make your day better."
When Bovee spoke to 6 News, she said her dear friend is now on a ventilator.
"He is very, very, very sick. He is on a ventilator," she said. "He actually needs a tracheostomy, but he is too sick for doctors to even do that procedure for him.
According to Bovee, Cary got vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in March. She said in June, Cary danced with a person who tested positive for coronavirus. On July 4, he learned he had contracted the Delta variant.
He was placed in a medically-induced coma at Baylor Scott and White Medical Center in Temple.
“We are definitely surprised that he is fighting for his life,” said Bovee. The vaccines are not going to save us from the variants and we still need to be careful.”
Johnson & Johnson announced its single-dose vaccine was only 85 percent effective against severe/critical disease and demonstrated protection against hospitalization and death.
"We want everyone to understand that Isaac’s story could be their story,” said Bovee. "If you are a family who has been through this experience, it might be encouraging for us to hear from you.”
Bell County saw an uptick in COVID-19 cases over the past few weeks with some of those cases being the Delta variant.
According to Yale Medicine, the Delta variant is the mutation of the coronavirus that first popped up in India, which is observed to be more contagious and severe than the COVID-19 strand that spread across the world in 2020.
Bovee set up a GoFundMe for Cary to help cover medical costs.