Chicago coronavirus deaths: South Side family says man, 23, died of COVID-19 after being discharged from hospital

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Friday, May 8, 2020
South Side family says brother, 23, died of COVID-19 after hospital discharge
Deshaun Taylordied from COVID-19 after he had been sent home from a hospital even with a positive test and comorbidities.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A South Side family is still struggling to come to terms with the death of 23-year-old Deshaun Taylor from COVID-19, which happened after he had been sent home from a hospital even with a positive test.

"It's still a lot," said Ebony Taylor, sister. "Now I can't get that image out of my face."

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Ebony said on Tuesday she couldn't reach Deshaun, who had been battling his COVID-19 symptoms from home.

"His phone kept going to voicemail so that kind of worried me, and I rushed to the house," she said.

Ebony found her brother unresponsive in his room. The young father who worked as an assisted living safety coordinator died on the way to the hospital.

"I didn't think that day of me coming to the house would have been a goodbye," Ebony said.

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Deshaun was one of nine siblings, and father to a 4-year-old daughter named Novia.

"His daughter is four years old and she won't be able to see her father again," Ebony lamented. "And he loved that girl to death."

The family has questions over his hospital treatment.

Deshaun suffered from asthma and was diabetic. Ebony said they took him to Little Company of Mary when he got sick, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia, tested positive for COVID-19 and then was sent home.

Two days later, an ambulance took him back to the hospital when he couldn't breathe but he was sent home again two hours later.

"They're sending you home even though you have pneumonia and you're diabetic and a high risk, and he said, 'Yep, they're not doing anything,'" Ebony said.

Now the family is searching for answers through their grief.

"He was very pure, loving, just a big guy like a big teddy bear. And he loved everyone," Ebony said. "It's just a tremendous loss in our family right now."

Little Company of Mary Hospital said in a statement their hearts go out to the Taylor family, but they could not comment on his case due to privacy laws.