Herald<\/em> was unable Friday to confirm cause of death. The La Plata County coroner was not involved with the death investigation, and Friday night, San Juan Basin Public Health reported that no one has died with COVID-19 since July 17. \u201cOur numbers are updated daily,\u201d the health department said, adding that it would not comment about specific cases, including Garcia\u2019s.<\/p>\nGarcia didn\u2019t want to go to the hospital, that\u2019s not where he wanted to die, Johnson said. But when he started having vision symptoms, he knew it was time to go to the emergency room. When he arrived, Mercy doctors treated him immediately for multiple organ failure. The organ failure led to severe brain damage. He stayed in the hospital for weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe night nurse played Taylor Swift and Britney Spears all night for him so I\u2019m sure he was showing off his horrible dance moves in his head lol,\u201d Johnson wrote in a Facebook post Aug. 9. \u201cStill looking like he may have a fast recovery and be making jokes with all of us about this soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friends and family organized the Fast Eddie 5K \u201cRun for Life,\u201d a virtual multi-sport 5K, from Aug. 11 to Aug. 16, and encouraged people to donate to Garcia\u2019s care.<\/p>\n
Garcia\u2019s health took a turn for the worse Aug. 13. On Tuesday, the family moved Garcia into hospice care.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were promising him that we were going to give him every chance we could while he was still strong enough to do it,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cAt that point, if we did what we could, we were going to stop making him fight for us \u2026 and let him decide when he was ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia, who was from Arboles, attended Ignacio High School before graduating from Pagosa Springs High School. He went to college in Denver, where he earned a fine arts degree.<\/p>\n
In his position at Axis, he worked with adults with severe mental health issues. He used to be a registered nurse for Axis\u2019 first episode of psychosis program, working with teens and young adults, Johnson said.<\/p>\n
Ernie Garcia of Durango died Thursday after a weekslong illness. He worked as a psychiatric nurse with Axis Health System in Durango and was an ultra-runner. Garcia’s fiance, Scott Johnson, said Garcia had COVID-19.<\/span>Courtesy of Ernie Garcia\u2019s friends and family<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>Dozens of people commented on Garcia\u2019s Facebook page to share their condolences. Several people were angry and called on others to take the coronavirus seriously and to wear masks. Mostly, they just shared memories about Garcia.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis large fan club is reeling with disbelief and sorrow. Our challenge is to live like Ernie. Live with wild abandon and absolute hilarity. Speak words of love and light,\u201d said Leah Fein on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease keep in mind, when we lose someone as wonderful as we did today, he is more than a number, more than a statistic, one who we thought would beat this \u2026,\u201d said Annette Martinez in a post on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just always really brightened up a room,\u201d said Brian Welsh, a longtime friend of Garcia\u2019s who organized the candlelight vigil. \u201cHe had this self-deprecating sarcasm that really made people smile. \u2026 He was always ready to help anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ernie Garcia with his fiance, Scott Johnson. Garcia died Thursday after a weekslong illness. Garcia’s fiance, Scott Johnson, said Garcia had COVID-19.<\/span>Courtesy of Ernie Garcia\u2019s friends and family<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>In his last days, Garcia did not show neurological response. His loved ones were able to visit him in person \u2013 which isn\u2019t always possible for patients with the coronavirus because of potential viral transmission.<\/p>\n
Johnson and Garcia had a whirlwind romance, getting engaged months after they started dating in March 2018. When Johnson said his goodbye to his fiance, he was angry, at first, that their time was cut short.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn that moment, I started thinking \u2026 it wasn\u2019t that I only got three years. I got three of the most beautiful, amazing, fun-filled, fantastic years of my entire life,\u201d he said. \u201cI told him, whenever you\u2019re ready, I am.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thanked him for every second. It was a gift and a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Family, friends say COVID-19 to blame; health department unable to confirm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2511,685,255,950,28,29,1914,1915],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-51915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-axis-health-system","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-death-and-dying","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-running","tag-ultra-running"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51915"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=51915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}