“It’s hard not to wonder if he had been taken seriously earlier, if they had intervened sooner, could his lungs have responded better?' Pamela Dennen asked. 'Could he maybe have been spared? I mean, nobody will ever know that.'
DES MOINES, Iowa — If life were fair, Kyle Brown and Pamela Dennen deserved more time together.
Brown’s symptoms then worsened to the point where he couldn’t speak. The couple made three drives to emergency rooms in Marshalltown and Newton. Twice, he was sent back home with Dennen, even after nurses over the phone told her he needed treatment. “I haven’t had a single hug, which is a really strange thing,” she said. “It’s just really hard to have this loss and be sick and be quarantined all at the same time. I mean, it’s a nightmare.”Brown and Dennen's relationship was bumpy early on, but not because they didn’t love each other.
TPI hired him once he got out, and he returned to living in Marshalltown. His work schedule gave him three-day weekends every other week, so he and Dennen switched off who would visit whom for five years, she said. Dean Lawthers, Brown’s friend since high school, lives on the same street as the couple. The two friends helped each other with house and yard work. Weeks ago, Brown told Lawthers that with his job, house and Dennen, he felt like he'd won the lottery.Brown worked his last shift at TPI on April 17. He felt a burning in his chest and was coughing. By the evening, he had a fever and severe body aches, Dennen said.
The company supplied surgical masks to its workers and their families to prevent community spread, TPI said, and secured hotel rooms for employees who tested negative so they could isolate.By April 20, two days after Brown got his test, his condition had worsened. He couldn’t talk without coughing, so Dennen called the UnityPoint hospital in Marshalltown.
Two days later, a nurse in Newton called with Brown’s test results. She heard Brown coughing in the background and, like the Marshalltown nurse, urged Dennen to bring him to the hospital, even offering to send an ambulance.
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