Local

St. Augustine Beach police officer returns to work after battling COVID-19

Jacksonville, FL — Cheers and clapping filled the hallways of Flagler Hospital St. Augustine on April 9. Lt. Dan Carswell was finally able to go home a month ago after fighting COVID-19.

He told Action News Jax reporter Alicia Tarancon his symptoms first began during the second week of spring break.

“That weekend I started to feel like I was catching the flu. Just had the body aches and chills,” Carswell said.

Carswell was tested immediately for the coronavirus and was sent home to quarantine.

As he waited for his results, his symptoms got worse. At one point, he couldn’t make it out of bed. That’s when he was rushed to the hospital. Shortly after, his test results came back positive.

At one point, his friends and family didn’t think he was going to make it.

“They gave me a 10% chance of living. My liver and kidneys were shutting down and I wasn’t responding to the treatment,” Carswell said.

For four days, he was hooked up to the ventilator in the ICU. Slowly, his symptoms began improving.

“We got a chance to finally talk to him when they took him off the ventilator, it was a true miracle,” said St. Augustine Beach Police Chief Robert Hardwick.

After spending three weeks in the hospital, he told Action News Jax he’s happy to be alive.

Carswell said it’s all thanks to doctors and nurses working tirelessly to save his life.

"They treated me like a person and not a patient with an infectious disease," he said.

Right now the 39-year-old lieutenant is taking it day by day. His colleagues at the police department bought him a treadmill to help him get his strength back.

“I just feel blessed to be where I am now,” Carswell said.

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