Window into virus surge: Death, recovery at Houston hospital

HOUSTON (AP) — A few weeks after more than 100 people attended her husband's funeral, the widow herself was on the brink of death.

Her oxygen levels had fallen deadly low due to complications from COVID-19, and her heart stopped. Ten people, each in two layers of protective equipment, surrounded her hospital bed. Two climbed on opposite sides of the bed — one pressing on her chest, the other on her abdomen.

At the foot of the bed, Dr. Joseph Varon called out a rhythm: one-two, one-two, one-two.

“Keep on pumping!” he yelled.

But they couldn’t save her.

At least 10 people who were at the funeral later developed coronavirus symptoms, according to her daughter, who fell sick herself. Most people weren't wearing masks. Her daughter says her mother told her she wished they had been more careful.

“We didn’t take precautions like we should have,” the daughter said. “We just got totally caught up in the moment.”

Now, the 66-year-old Latina woman's death is a grim warning for Texas, which has seen a surge in the number of people testing positive for the coronavirus since it began aggressively loosening restrictions in May. Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in the state have more than doubled in the last two weeks, and Texas is reporting, on average, more than four times as many cases each day as it was a month ago. It surpassed 10,000 new confirmed cases in a single day Tuesday.

Nearly 80% of the state's hospital beds are in use, and intensive care units are filling up in some of the nation’s biggest cities, including San Antonio and Houston, where leaders are warning their health facilities could become overwhelmed in the coming days. In all, Texas has recorded more than 2,670 deaths and more than 200,000 confirmed cases of the virus.

While rising case...