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LaNece Andreason got to wave at her husband — from a distance — March 28 as staffers at Lone Peak Hospital wheeled him into the intensive care unit.
That was the last time she saw him. Todd Andreason, a 54-year-old father of two teenagers, died from complications of the coronavirus a week later.
“His body just wasn’t fighting it anymore,” LaNece Andreason said Tuesday.
Todd Andreason was the director of housekeeping at Stein Eriksen Lodge in Deer Valley. The Park City area has been a hot spot in the pandemic, but LaNece Andreason emphasized her family didn’t know where her husband contracted COVID-19.
Andreason graduated from Murray High School and went right to work in the hospitality industry, his wife said. His LinkedIn profile lists jobs at hotels in Salt Lake and Summit counties and says he began working at Stein Eriksen in 2016.
When he wasn’t at his job, Andreason was working on his lawn and garden at the family home in Bluffdale. LaNece Andreason said her husband manicured the grass and grew vegetables in a greenhouse.
“He just spent most of his time out in the yard,” she said.
Andreason had asthma and high blood pressure. LaNece Andreason referred to a log she kept to describe her husband’s ordeal. He began showing mild symptoms March 19.
Two days later, he went to an urgent care center. Staffers there tested him for influenza.
“He didn’t have enough of the symptoms that they were requiring for a COVID test,” LaNece Andreason said. “They just thought he had a regular virus.”
The influenza test was negative. A few more days passed, and LaNece Andreason could see her husband wasn’t getting better, she said. On March 26, she called her own doctor, who suggested the couple go to an emergency room.
“The emergency room doctor,” LaNece Andreason said, “was thinking, ‘Yeah, we’re going to test him, but I’m pretty sure he’s got this.’”
Andreason’s family was not allowed to visit him in the hospital. Staff intubated Andreason on March 28, his wife said, limiting the phone contact his wife, his 19-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter could have with him.
LaNece Andreason was down the hall to wave as he was moved March 28. The following Saturday, she said, her husband went into renal failure and died.
Carolyn Rose, nursing director at the Summit County Health Department, said she could not discuss Andreason’s case due to privacy concerns. In an email, Rose wrote that, in general, it is difficult to narrow down precisely where people contracted the coronavirus.
“There are many cases of COVID-19 in Summit County, including ski resort employees, and the service industry employees,” Rose wrote. “We, SCHD, have worked with and continue to work with any business owner who needs assistance in dealing with sick employees. The major ski resorts have internal processes in place to help deal with this pandemic.”
When counting coronavirus patients in Utah, the sick are usually tallied in the county where they reside. Salt Lake County reported 807 cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday; Summit County reported 265. Rose said there have been no reported deaths of Summit County coronavirus patients.
LaNece Andreason said she and her daughter also have tested positive. The mother said she has not had any symptoms and will be considered safe if she makes it through Friday without further signs of the virus. Her daughter has had headaches and a slight cough and has finished her quarantine.
“The hardest part is I can’t comfort my children,” LaNece Andreason said. “I can talk to them, but I can’t hug them. It’s a horrible disease.”
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