Former Windsor police chief survives long battle with COVID-19

Former Windsor Police Chief Carlos Basurto is recovering after a life-or-death battle with the coronavirus that for 20 days left him hospitalized in intensive care, sedated and isolated from his family.

Basurto, 51, was 2,000 miles away from Sonoma County on a family vacation in New Orleans in mid-March when he started to feel extraordinary fatigue, the first sign of what would develop into a debilitating case of COVID-19 caused by the new coronavirus sweeping the globe.

Basurto, who suffers from asthma, which likely exacerbated his plight with the virus, returned home Saturday night after being discharged from Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital. The retired police chief wrote about his frightening ordeal on social media, urging people to take the infectious disease seriously and follow the county's emergency order to isolate at home.

“I finally made it back home last night,” Basurto wrote on Sunday. “I have to say, I've never been so scared in my life and now, I've never been so grateful.”

Basurto still has residual effects from pneumonia. He cannot hold long conversations and uses a walker because of how the virus affected his leg joints.

He remains too weak to be interviewed, but gave permission for The Press Democrat to share his experience as he described it in a long social media post. He wrote it “so that you might take this pandemic serious and understand that for many this illness is no joke and could be very deadly, very quickly.”

“Take all precautions for as long it takes, if not for yourselves then at least for your families and others,” Basurto wrote.

Basurto retired last year as a sheriff's lieutenant, stepping down from his appointed post heading the Windsor Police Department and continuing to work part time as a bailiff at Sonoma County Superior Court. He served as chief from 2016 to May 2019 and worked in law enforcement for about 30 ?years.

Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick said that Basurto was the first among the department to fall ill from the infectious disease. News of the seriousness of his condition really “hit home” for many in the department, the sheriff said.

“Normally when you have a friend in the hospital, you can visit him,” Essick said. “In his particular case, he was sick in the hospital, in intensive care, he could have no visitors. He was unable to talk and communicate. His wife and daughter were quarantined at home.”

On March 13, Basurto and his wife, Carmen Basurto, were on day five of the New Orleans trip with their two adult children when he started to feel sick. He spent the next day alone in a hotel room, sending his family out to explore the historic Louisiana city along the Mississippi River. He was exhausted and had no appetite.

“I didn't know what I had but knew that it would get worse,” Basurto wrote.

He arranged for his family to fly home the next day. He became feverish on the plane and developed a mild, dry cough. By the time the Basurtos reached their Windsor home, he had a 102-degree fever and was having trouble breathing.

He went to the Sutter emergency room that night. He would not leave ?the hospital for another 20 days.

“I've lived with asthma all my life and have suffered through bronchitis various times, but I had never felt like this before, nor has a respiratory illness ever come on so fast before, either,” Basurto wrote.

He described how his condition deteriorated over the first four days he was hospitalized, his pneumonia worsening. By day five, medical staff sedated him and put him on a ventilator to help him breathe. He remained sedated and intubated for six days.

Acknowledging the newness of the disease that has killed more than 10,000 people across the United States, Basurto said doctors tried a variety of antiviral and antibiotic drugs “but truly it was all a shot in the dark.”

His wife of 29 years said it was like living a nightmare to be barred from being at her husband's side in the hospital.

“It broke my heart to know that my husband was suffering alone,” Carmen Basurto said in a text message. “Not being able to be by his side was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I know that people are dying alone. We are so blessed that he fought hard and survived.”

Basurto, an avid cyclist, believes his healthy lifestyle helped his body fight off the virus. He urged people with medical conditions like asthma or diabetes to seek treatment early, given what he has learned about the way the virus attacks the body.

A devout Christian, he credits his turn toward recovery to his faith and the power derived from those who prayed for him and his family, in addition to the heroic efforts of the hospital medical team, especially Sutter nurses.

“They are our true front-line warriors in this battle against the unseen enemy,” Basurto said.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.