Former Kentucky star’s mother has COVID-19
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ,CNN) – Former Kentucky basketball great and Minnesota Timerwolves’ star Karl-Anthony Towns is taking the coronavirus personally and is telling others.
Towns’ mother is in a medically induced coma from the disease and in telling her story, he is encouraging others to take the coronavirus seriously.
“This disease is real,” he said in an Instagram post. “This disease needs not to be taken lightly. Please protect your families, your loved ones, your friends, yourself.”
“We can beat this, but we need to take every precaution, ” he wrote. “I am sharing my story in hopes everyone will stay at home. We need more medical equipment and we need to help those medical personnel who are on the front lines.
“Thank you to the medical staff who are helping my mom. You are all the true heroes. Praying for all of us at this difficult time,” he concluded.
Towns was a member of the 2014-15 Kentucky basketball team that went undefeated in the regular season but lost to Wisconsin in the Final Four. He was selected first overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2015 NBA Draft and he still plays for them.
There are more than 50,000 cases of Covid-19 in the United States, and at least 704 people have died. Officials have urged Americans to practice social distancing to curb the spread, and many states have implemented stay-at-home orders.
But some are still ignoring the precautions.
Even before his mother was put into a medically induced coma, Towns and his family took the virus seriously.
Towns learned last week both of his parents weren’t feeling well, and he urged them to seek medical attention immediately, he said. After days of no improvement, they went to a hospital.
His father was released into quarantine at his home, but his mother was deteriorating, he said in his post. Though medications would lower her fever, it would spike at night. The hospital staff did everything they could to manage her condition.
“We always thought the next medicine would help,” he said. “The next one would help. This is the one that’s going to get it done. This one will make sure to get it done.”
One day, he said, she felt great and they thought she was finally turning a corner. But then things went sideways.
She got worse, and she was confused. Doctors explained to Towns that she would have to be put on a ventilator. Then she was put in a medically induced coma.
Now Towns and his family are left in uncertainty. But they have not given up.
“We’re going to keep fighting on my side. We’re going to win,” Towns said. “My mother is the strongest woman I know, and I know she will beat this. And we will rejoice when she does.”
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